. Travels in the Pyrenees : including Andorra and the coast from Barcelona to Carcassonne. ntury, the old Roman cathedral was neverfinished. The Bishop, like his father, was drowned, and noone has ever been big enough to carry his design to comple-tion. Within, it has been restored in a pitiable manner, itsrude old capitals and superb masses of cut stone overlaidwith trumpery plaster. The cathedral has two towers, builtin the most massive manner of cut stone, but these also werenever finished. Pierced here and there with loopholes, darkand forbidding within, they are more like the outworks of
. Travels in the Pyrenees : including Andorra and the coast from Barcelona to Carcassonne. ntury, the old Roman cathedral was neverfinished. The Bishop, like his father, was drowned, and noone has ever been big enough to carry his design to comple-tion. Within, it has been restored in a pitiable manner, itsrude old capitals and superb masses of cut stone overlaidwith trumpery plaster. The cathedral has two towers, builtin the most massive manner of cut stone, but these also werenever finished. Pierced here and there with loopholes, darkand forbidding within, they are more like the outworks of amediasval fortress than a church of God, and plainly revealthe turbulent character of the times in which they werebuilt. Time and again this old fortress-church has fulfilledits purpose of war, and even to this day the beauty of itsarched galleries above the apse is marred by masonry wallsbuilt hastily during the Carlist wars. The view from theseheights, where the great bells of the cathedral hang underthe pent-roofs, is of surpassing beauty. > * ? , ) 0 o 3 !> J > » J 3 .. URGELL AND ITS PRINCE-BISHOP 301 The nave has a groined roof of stone, over w^hich, again,there is a tiled roof, leaving space for men to move about;and in this dark territory, with its loopholes for defence,and protecting outw^orks for hurling down missiles andmolten oil and lead upon the heads of an attacking force,one is purely in a secular and barbaric world, with no hintof the stricken Christ who died to bring peace and good-willamongst men. Descending the dark dungeon-like stairs, narrow andpolished as are the inner chambers of the Pyramids, Iwalked across the sunlit cloisters, to call upon the Vicar-General, Don Viladrich y Gaspar, who, in the absence of theBishop, represents the episcopal authority in Urgell. TheVicar-General received me with the generous hospitality ofSpain, requesting me to consider his house as my own, andI spent many pleasant hours in his company during mystay in Urgel
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfranced, bookyear1913
