possessed previous to the eleventh century. In 1069 the first on record
was built; in 1120 another; a third in the thirteenth century, and
finally the fourth and present building in 1471.

It was the evident intention of the architect to imitate the _Pulchra
Leonina_, but other tastes and other styles had swept across the
peninsula and the result of the unknown master's plans resembles rather
a heavy, awkward caricature than anything else, and a bastard mixture of
Gothic, plateresque, and grotesque styles.

The northern front is by far the best of the two, boasting of a rather
good relief in the tympanum of the ogival arch; some of the painted
windows are also of good workmanship, though the greater part are modern
glass, and unluckily unstained.

Its peculiarities can be signalized; the windows of the southern aisle
are situated above the lateral chapels, while those of the northern are
lower and situated in the chapels. The height and width of the aisles
are also remarkable--a circumstance that does not lend either beauty or
effect to the building. There is no ambulatory behind the high altar,
which stands in the lady-chapel; the apse is rounded. This peculiarity
reminds one dimly of what the primitive plan of the Oviedo cathedral
must have resembled.

By far the most meritorious piece of work in the cathedral is the
sixteenth-century _retablo_ of the high altar, which alone is worth a
visit to Astorga. It is one of Becerra's masterpieces in the late
plateresque style, as well as being one of the master's last known works
(1569).

It is composed of five vertical and three horizontal bodies; the niches
in the lower are flanked by Doric, those of the second by Corinthian,
and those of the upper by composite columns and capitals. The polychrome
statues which fill the niches are life-size and among the best in Spain;
together they are intended to give a graphic description of the life of
the Virgin and of her Son.

In some of the decorative details, however, this _retablo_ shows evident
signs of plateresque decadence, and the birth of the florid grotesque
style, which is but the natural reaction against the severity of early
sixteenth-century art.

V

BURGOS

Burgos is the old capital of Castile.

Castile--or properly Castilla--owed its name to the great number of
castles which stood on solitary hills in the midst of the plains lying
to the north of the Sierra de Guaderrama; one of these castles was