gns in the decorative elements of the capitals,--a unique example
in Galicia, where only floral or leaf motives were used in the best
period of Romanesque. The design to be noticed here on one of the
capitals is a bird devouring a toad, and it is so crudely and rustically
carved that one is almost inclined to believe that a native of the
country conceived and executed it.

_PART III_

_The North_

I

OVIEDO

"Oviedo was born of a religious inspiration; its first building was a
temple (monastery?), and monks were its first inhabitants."

In the valley adjoining Cangas, in the eighth century, the most
important village in Asturias, a religious sect erected a monastery.
Froila or Froela, one of the early noblemen (now called a king, though
he was no king in those days) who fought against the Moors, erected in
the same century a church in the vicinity of Cangas (in Oviedo?),
dedicating it to the Saviour; he also built a palace near the same spot.
His son, Alfonso the Chaste, born in this palace, was brought up in a
convent near Lugo in Galicia. Upon becoming king he hesitated whether to
establish his court in Lugo, or in the new village which had been his
birthplace, namely Oviedo. At length, remembering perhaps his father's
love for the country near Cangas, he established it in the latter place
in the ninth century, and formed the kingdom of Asturias as opposed to
that of Galicia; the capital of the new kingdom was Oviedo.

"The king gave the city to the Saviour and to the venerable church built
by his father, and which, like a sun surrounded by its planets, he
placed within a circle of other temples.

"He convocated an ecclesiastical council with a view to establish a
primate see in Oviedo; he maintained an assembly of prelates who lent
lustre to the church, and he gave each a particular residence; the
spiritual splendour of Oviedo eclipsed even the brilliancy of the
throne."

This was in 812, and the first bishop consecrated was one Adulfo.

The subsequent reign of Alfonso was signalized by the discovery in
Galicia of the corpse of St. James the Apostle. The sovereign, it
appears, showed great interest in the discovery, established a church on
the sacred spot, and generously donated the nascent town. Not without
reason did posterity celebrate his many Christian virtues by calling
him the Chaste, _el Casto_.

Two hundred years only did Oviedo play an important part in the history
of Spain as c