The choir stalls]

To the north rises the spire which commands the city and the Cathedral
of Toledo. It was begun in 1380 and completed in sixty years,--no long
time when we take into account its size and detail and the carefulness
of its construction. Rodrigo Alfonso and Alvar Gomez were the
architects, and the Cardinals Pedro Tenorio and Tavera directed the
work. Although it lacks the soaring grace of the towers of Burgos, it
possesses quiet strength and a majestic dignity, and the transitions
between its various stories have been executed with a skill scarcely
less than that shown in the older tower of Chartres. It is in fact full
of a character of its own. Divided into three parts, it rises to a
height of some three hundred feet and terminates in a huge cross. The
principal building material is the hard but easily carved Berroquena
granite, with certain portions finished in marble and slate. The lower
part, which is square, has its faces pierced by interlacing Gothic
arches, windows of different shapes, ornamental coats-of-arms and marble
medallions. It is crowned by a railing and, at the corners where the
transition to the hexagon occurs, by stone pyramids. The central part is
hexagonal in plan and ornamented by arches and crocketed finials. Above
it rises the slate spire terminating under the cross in a conical
pyramid, added after a fire in the year 1662. The spire is curiously and
uniquely encircled by three collars of pointed iron spikes, intended to
symbolize the crowns of thorns.

The great bells of the Cathedral peal from this tower, among them the
huge San Eugenio, better known, though, by the name "Campana gorda," or
the Big-bellied Bell, weighing 1543 arobes (about 17 tons) and put up
the same day it was cast in the year 1753. Its fame is shown by the old
lines, which enumerate the wonders of Spain as the--

Campana la de Toledo,
Iglesia la de Leon,
Reloj el de Benavente,
Rollos los de Villalon.[12]

Fifteen shoemakers could sit under it and draw out their cobbler's
thread without touching each other. A legend relates that "the sound of
it reached, when first it was rung, even to heaven. Saint Peter fancied
that the tones came from his own church in Rome, but on ascertaining
that this was not the case, and that Toledo possessed the largest of all
bells, he got angry and flung down one of his keys upon it, thus causing
a crack in the bell which is still to be seen."

Not only does t