The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-13
WHERE coLuMBus woRsEIPED.
rne Pail OF the Dome of the Great
Cathedral OF Seville.
Fronl TIE NeIs Yorl' sun.

~ne Pail OF the Dome of the Great
Cathedral OF Seville.
From the Ne,g Yort, sun
pAaIs, Avg. 25--The telegraphic dis
Watches which informed the people of the
Oid World and tie New of the falling in of
.be dome of the cathedral of Seville could
civs 10 tie general public no idea of the
Calamity TO christian art in its highest sense
which rhis accident involved. Apart, how
aver. from the irreparable loss of SO many
mas, erpieces of artistic skill, Americans Of
everv nationality have special interest in
the glorious cathedral For it was i'll that
vorv sanctuary, in front of the incompara-
HE high alter, and beneath that very dome,
that Christopher Columbus. disheartened
Inv 0! stacles an opposition, was wont to
anne daily TO implore heaven to support
him and to enable him to carry out his
project OF discovering new world.
II was the clergy of Seville, ever fore
most in works of generosity and zeal, who
furnished the first missionaries to Columbus,
an Irish priest among them, by the way /;
and from the church of Seville the first
c chm ever founded In Spanish America
derived immediate jurisdiction. In the
nriva5e chapel of the Alcazar OF Seville Is
the altar before which Columbus, after dis
covering the Bahamas, offered up his devout
thanksgiving. Near the great central door
If the western front of the cathedral in the
main aisle, is the tomb of the discoversr ia
yorite son and companion, Diego Columbus,
who gave to the chapter of the Cathedral his
own and his fathers library. And in this
Colombine Library, situated within the
immense quadrangle containing the cathe-
dral and the residence of the oanors, She
pilgrim from America sees, handles, reads
with emotion the very books so long and
carefully studied by Columbus, and still
bearing annotations in his own hand
writing.
From this, and from the fact that from
the port of Seville set forth in succession
the first bands of heroic priests who
preached the Gospel truth in the West In
dies and the neighboring continent, wo
Americans can easily understand and APP
preciate the claim so long put forth by the
cathedral of Seville to be the mother
church Of the American colonies.
This much | have written to let the
reader know that all the inhabitants of the
New World must feel a deep interest in the
preservation and reconstruction of that
stupendous church edi1ce which, in many
respects, is the most marvellous ever
planned and reared by the genius Of chris
tianity
wrote much to the Sun from Seville
Of your readers may still remember that in
my very last letter described the explora-
ton had made of the vaulted ceiling of
the dome in company with the distin
guished architect Senior Casanova. For
many years previously the canons had ob-
served that the vaulting of the dome and
transepts was In a very precarious condi
ton. Large fragments weighing several
tons had fallen here and there from the
,ts.lx-
life; and in the north transept one OF the
gigantic pillars, some fifteen feet in diam
eter, was so bent as TO offer to the eye a
very perceptible curve
The government, again and again warned
OF the impending danger, was either with
out means or afflicted with the malady of
procrastination SO prevalent in the penin-
sula. At length, pressed by my friend Don
Melton Martin, they set apart certain
sum for repairs, and sent Senior Casanova
to superintend them. He was hard at'work
Dropping up the ruinous vaulting and pre-
pairing to remedy the threatened evil when
LETT Seville in May, 1882 The work was
well advanced when the terrible earth
quakes of 16S5-'S6 undid all that the archi-
tect had been able to do so far.
What l saw in March, 1882, during our
careful exploration of the vaulting, will
make clear to the reader the remote causes
of the calamity which has just befallen the
noblest ecclesiastical edifice in Spain. The
cathedral of Seville had no exterior roof to
protect from the weather the exquisitely
constructed stone vaulting, which most
visitors and all connoiSseurs so much adj
mired. Why, you will ask, was so preci-
Gus, so splendid an edifice thus left exposed
for centuries to the injuries of the
atmosphere, to the pelting of the storm,
and the filtering of the winter rainsl
Let me answer; the construction and
decoration of this most superb Christian
temple, from the beginning in about 1890 to
lis conservation III about 1910. were carried
on at the expense of the cathedral clergy,
who deprived themselves, generation after
generation, of all but the simple
necessaries of life, in order to
rear to God such a house of worship
as the world had never seen. have
read the original resolutions and the sue
ceeding annals of the chapter in their
archives Do not believe what guide books
OF superficial travellers say about the
treasures contributed by kings, mobiles, and
the people. The only treasures on which
the archbishops and canols of Seville de-
pended was their own right royal gener
osity.
They had always hoped to roof their loved
cathedral in time. But the internal vault
ing was constructed with such extraordi-
nary care that it seemed to have the
sohdity of rock. Then the lovely climate
of Andalusia allowed them to defer from
decade to decade the beginning of the roof.
Other accidents and reasons also interfered
with their purpose. In 1910, or whereabouts
for write this without book of reference
or my own notes., just when they had COM
pleted the great central dome over the cross
ing, together with its lofty spire, it fell
suddenly, causing great destruction and dis
may. They were not discouraged, how
ever. A congress of architects was called,
new plans were discussed, and less lofty
dome was reared in few years. This in
yolved enormous additional expense, after
some lgOyears of profuse outlay and incredi-
bic self-sacrifice.
During all these years, however, as every
one knows who has spent any time in
Seville ana studied the history Of its cathe-
dral, the mere building up of the shell of
the building, with its seven aises, its Access
sorry chapels some OF them as large as our
New York city churchesJ, and its sacristies,
was only one part Of the work undertaken
by the generous canons. The cathedral was
one vast laboratory of all the arts all
through its progress. Sculptors, painters,
musicians, artfceIs in bronze and iron,
gold and silversmitds: in word, all the
varied genius and industry which waits on
architecture and ministers to the splendor
OK christian worship, was at work within
H. Ill