y of planning
the "girola" or ambulatory, one realizes that such construction could
only be the outcome of many years of study, experiment and inspiration.
Perfection means long previous schooling and experience. The apsidal
chapels that radiate from it have glass differing in excellence. Here
and there frescoes of the thirteenth century line these earliest walls.
It is surprising in how many different places old sepulchres are to be
found, all more or less similar in their general design and belonging to
the period of transition from the Byzantine to the Gothic, yet each
denoting the building period of the place where it stands. Some of the
subjects of the carving are most curious: a hog playing the bagpipes,
the devil in the garb of a father confessor, tempting a penitent; or
again, a woman suckling an ass. Saint Froila lies on one side of the
altar. Not only his sanctity but even his authenticity were disputed by
various disbelievers in the city, prior to his being brought to this
final resting-place. The matter was decided by placing the body in
question on an ass's back, whereupon the sagacious animal took his holy
burden to the spot where it deserved burial.

In the Capilla de Nuestra Senora del Dado, or "of the die," stands a
Virgin with the face of the Christ child ever bleeding, it is said,
since the time when an unlucky gambler in a fit of despair threw his
dice against the Babe.

Directly opposite Ordono's tomb lies the Countess Sancha, who, in a
burst of religious enthusiasm, decided to leave her considerable worldly
goods to the Church instead of to her nephew. This was more than he
could stand, and he murdered her. Below her figure he is represented,
receiving his just reward in being torn to pieces by wild horses.

To the north, a florid Gothic portal leads on a higher level to the
Chapel of Santiago. This has been, and is still being, restored. Its
three vaults are differently arched, the ribs not being carried down
against the side walls to the floor, but met by broad corbels supported
by curious figures. The stonework is cold and gray in comparison to the
church proper.

Separating the northern entrance from the cloisters is a row of chapels,
leading one into the other and crowded with tombs and sculpture. There
are few more complete cloisters in Spain. Large and elaborate, they are
a curious mixture of the old Gothic and the Renaissance restorations of
the sixteenth century. Ancient Gothic tombs,