s itself as to why a cathedral was erected
in Orense previous to any other city. From a legend it would appear
that the king of the Suevos, Carrarick, had a son who was dying; thanks
to the advice of a Christian monk, a disciple of St. Martin, and, one is
inclined to think, fresh from Tours, the king dipped his son in the
baths of Orense, invoking at the same time the help of St. Martin. Upon
pulling his offspring out of the water, he discovered that he had been
miraculously cured. The grateful monarch immediately became a stout
Christian, and erected a basilica--destroyed and rebuilt many a time
during the dark ages of feudalism and Arab invasion--in honour of his
son's saviour. What is more wonderful still is that, soon afterward, the
relics of the French saint were cherished in Orense without its being
positively known whence they came!

The present cathedral, the date of the erection of which is a point of
discussion to-day, is generally believed to have been built on the spot
occupied by the primitive basilica. It is dedicated to Santa Maria la
Madre according to the official (doubtful?) statement, and to St. Martin
of Tours, Apostle of Gaul, according to the popular version.

The general appearance of the cathedral proclaims it to have been begun,
or at least planned, in the twelfth century, and not, as Baedeker
states, in 1220. As a twelfth-century church we are not obliged to
consider it for more reasons than one, and especially because, as we
have seen, the twelfth century was the great period of Galician
church-building. It was in this century that the northwest shone forth
in the history of Spain as it had not done before, nor has done since.

The church is another Romanesque specimen, but less pure in its style
than any of the others mentioned so far: the ogival arch is prevalent,
but rather as a decorative than as an essentially constructive element.
As it is, it was commenced at least fifty years after the cathedral of
Lugo, and though both are twelfth-century churches, the one is an early
and the other presumably a late one; the employment of the ogival arch
to a greater degree in Orense than in Lugo is thus easily explained.

In short, the cathedral of Orense is another example of the peculiar
Romanesque of Galicia, which, withstanding the invasion of Gothic,
created a school of its own, pretty in details, bold in harmony, though
it be a hybrid school after all.

The influence of the cathedral of San