n the walls of the Alcazar before the
old pile had been practically destroyed. Segovia was without a Cathedral
church.

In the centre of the city, on the very crest of the hill, lay the only
clearing within the walls. Here at one end of the plaza was the site of
the convent mentioned by Emperor Charles, which had long sheltered the
nuns of Santa Clara. They had abandoned it for other quarters, and the
adjacent convent of San Miguel had become unpopular and was dwindling
into insignificance. Both could thus in this most free and commanding
location give way to a new and larger cathedral, distant from what would
always prove the rallying point of civic strife. Following the mighty
wave of revolt which had swept the city, came a great receding wave of
religious enthusiasm to atone in holy fervor for the impious act
recently committed. Citizen and noble alike proposed to build an edifice
which would be much more to the glory of Saint Mary than the shrine
which they had so recently pulled down. Lords gave whole villages;
women, their jewels; and the citizens, the sweat of their brows. We find
in the archives of the Cathedral the following entry by the Canon Juan
Ridriguez[b]:

"On June 8th, 1522, ... by the consent and resolution of the Lord Bishop
D. Diego de Rovera and of the Dean and Chapter of the said church, it
was agreed to commence the new work of the said church to the glory of
God and in honor of the Virgin Mary and the glorious San Frutos and all
saints, taking for master of the said work Juan Gil de Hontanon, and for
his clerk of the works Garcia de Cubillas. Thursday, the 8th of June,
1552, the Bishop ordered a general procession with the Dean and Chapter,
clergy and all the religious orders."

The corner stone was laid and the masonry started at the western end
under the most renowned architect of the age. Juan Gil had already
worked on the old Segovian Cathedral, but had achieved his great fame on
the new Cathedral of Salamanca, started ten years previously, whose
walls were rising with astounding rapidity. His clerk was almost equally
skilled, always working in perfect harmony with his master and carrying
out his designs without jealousy during the "maestro's" many illnesses
and journeys to and from Salamanca. Garcia lived to work on the church
until 1562, and the old archives still hold many drawings from his
skillful hand.

The two late Gothic Cathedrals are so similar in many points that they
are imme