The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-06-06
Icons SUPREME SIGHTS.
Cathedral, Church and Convent of til

Cathedral, Church and Convent of the
Old Spanish Capital.
Oh, this cathedral of Leon. with the
matchless spire! The blue sky glcam-
ed through its lofty lattice work SO
that the effect was as if the spire it.
self were inlaid for hundreds of feet
wit hsla,bs of turquoise. The inevita-
BILE restora ton was in progress. A
maze Of scaffold poles and platforms
covered it's southern front like a web,
and the t!ckticl1 Of masons inside the
building responded to the louder blows
of other masons outside. So it has been
for years, and probably years moro
will elapse and architect will succeed
architect ere the stately fane-''ditis-
sina pulchraque templa'-stands I'M
der the heavens in It's naked magnii-
cence. They do these things tardily in
Spain. But all in disarray as it was,
with it's monuments bound up in sack
cloth, with whistling, cigarette smok
| ing mechanics perched about it like
seagulls on the face of cliff, and thu
| dirt of decades in its aisles, one could
still do homage to the lovely building.
Admission was, of course prohibited,
save to those concerned in the restora-
ton; and equally of course a 'peseta"
made one free of the Interior from the
Chapel of the Consolation, in the ex-
IRENE east, to the marvellous statuary
groups in alabaster and gold of the
"tarscoro.' Hundreds of emerald and
ruby lights caught the, sunshine and
filled nave and aisles with a glow al
most voluptuous in it's glamour Tombs
and relics Of eight centuries adorn the
cathedral, the body of which, as it
stands, dates from about 1900 A. y.
only. And here, as with the oathedrals
of Oviedo Santiago and the otner
chief places of Northwest Spain, one
may in the west facade alone find ma
terial? for hours of study.
OF the three supreme sights of
Leon, the cathedral ranks first. The
Church of st. Isidro the Royal may
come next. Here lie the bones of those
early kings Of Leon who trembled in
spite of themselves at the dread name
Of Almanssor. Soult's soldiers amused
themselves with these dry bones, and
their horses We're stabbed in the ais'es
of the church, the shell alone of which
they left unpolluted. 1t is for it's age
and associations that one esteems st.
Isdro the Royal, rather than for its
untroubled beauty The royal lmpera-
tive sight" of the city Is the Convent
Of San Marcos. This I postponed until
the heat Of the day was past. The con-
vent impresses more even than the
cathedral 1t is as dead as Charles Y.
but superb even in its slow, happily
very SLOW decomposition. The knights
of Santiago, for whom it was originally
designed, have, Of course, long gone the
way of the age they graced But one
may judge of their Importance in the
extraordinary elaborateness of this
long facade of bronzed stone. Busts, |
medallions and friezes-there are
enough of them there, Of the highest
quality, to endow a dozen art schools |
with worthy material for inspiration.
The lone woman said, "Muy Bucno!"
to every part of it. She could have |
said no more if she had had the honor |
of playing cicerone to Alfonso NH
himself, and she spoke truth at random I
every time. The omnipresent scallop |
shell testified here, as throughout |
Galicia, to the commanding influence
in the past of that moribund sanctuary
OIL SdUlldSO, WlllCu SIlIl las I'D dSlSo VI
ecclesiastical buildings and it's scores
of clergy. To one empty chamber there |
was a ceiling of cedar wood some TWEEN
ty yards by eight, gloriously carved. |
The courtyard toward which we looked |
from an upper cloister was a tangle
of roses and tall grasses, with stag
nant well in their midst.
Leon rejoices, without enthusiasm, in
this matchless convent The city has
but eleven thousand or twelve thou
sand inhabitants, and no industry of |
size and there are so many other relics
of the past within it's boundaries that
it cannot be expected to vote large
sums for antiquarian purposes. 1t is
that the convent has hNen
turned into a provincial museum. The
name does not mean so much to the
Spaniard as it would mean to the
Here, in the South, they
10 not spend their leisure moments
looking at accumulations of Roman in
seriptions, noseless heads and tomb
stones. Spain's provincial museums
Ire for the stranger rather than the
lbOrieine Rut better half a loaf than |