s the ambulatory, on the off-side of
which are situated the five apsidal chapels. Consequently the second
transept separates the old from the new high altar.

[Illustration: PALENCIA CATHEDRAL]

In spite of the low aisles and nave, and the absence of sculptural
motives so pronounced in Burgos, the effect produced on the spectator by
the double cross and the unusual length as compared with the width is
agreeable. The evident lack of unity in the Gothic structure is
recompensed by the original and pleasing plan.

The final judgment that can be emitted concerning this cathedral church,
when seen from the outside, is that it shows the typical Spanish-Gothic
characteristic, namely, heaviness as contrasted to pure ogival
lightness. There is poverty in the decorative details, and solemnity in
the interior; the appearance from the outside is of a fortress rather
than a temple, with slightly pointed Gothic windows, and a heavy and
solid, rather than an elegant and light, general structure. Only the
cathedral church of Palencia outgrew the original model and took the
strange and exotic form it possesses to-day, without losing its
fortress-like aspect.

Though really built in stone (see the columns and pillars in the
interior), brick has been largely used in the exterior; hence also the
impossibility of erecting a pure Gothic building, and this is a remark
that can be applied to most churches in Spain. The buttresses are heavy,
the square tower (unfinished) is Romanesque or _Mudejar_ in form rather
than Gothic, though the windows be ogival. There is no western facade or
portal; the tower is situated on the southern side between the true
transepts.

Of the four doorways, two to the north and two to the south, which give
access to the transepts, the largest and richest in sculptural
decoration is the Bishop's Door (south). Observe the geometrical designs
in the panels of the otherwise ogival and slightly pointed doorway. The
other portal on the south is far simpler, and the arch which surmounts
it is of a purer Gothic style; not so the geometrically decorated panels
and the almost Arabian frieze which runs above the arches. This frieze
is Moorish or Mudejar-Byzantine, and though really it does not belong in
an ogival building, it harmonizes strangely with it.

In the interior of the cathedral the nakedness of the columns is
partially recompensed by the richness in sculptural design of some
sepulchres, as well as by several si