an old House in the Calle de Moncara

PLATE XCVIII. GERONA.

Old House near the Estrella de Oro

PLATE XCIX. GERONA.

Upper Part of an old House and Spire of the Church of San Feliu

PLATE C. GERONA.

Old Walls near the Monastery of San Pedro

FOOTNOTES

ETEXT TRANSCRIBER NOTE

PLATE 1

BURGOS

THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA

MDW 1869

[Illustration: PLATE 1

BURGOS

THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA

MDW 1869]

PLATE I.

_BURGOS._

THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA.

IT is sad to notice how few traces beyond its magnificent Cathedral are
left in this, the capital of old Castile, of those "Castellanos rancios
y viejos," who once so splendidly represented the pride and power of
Spanish chivalry. Of the sixteen golden castles the city bears upon its
stately arms how insignificant are the relics? The remains of its walls
and bastions attest the many centuries during which it held its own
against all comers, Christian or Infidel. Of these walls, our sketch
represents a portion in which there is little doubt the Renaissance
frontispiece and archway replaced an older and sterner portal, better
suited probably for defence than decoration. The legend runs that this
facade was executed by the citizens, who had been exhibiting
proclivities of far too Communistic a character to be agreeable to so
high-handed a sovereign as Charles V., in order to propitiate that
potentate, and to commemorate a visit, on his part at least, of a
conciliatory character. It would seem, however, that in spite of the
loyalty which induced the Burgalese to assign the post of honour (always
under the invocation of the "Virgen sin pecado concebida)" to the statue
of the King, they took good care to give him for companions Nuno
Rasura, and Lain Calvo, whom they had themselves elected in the tenth
century to rule over them, and protect their Communal rights. The
maintenance of these had been somewhat interfered with by the King of
Leon, Fruela II., who had invited the chief citizens to a banquet, and
then quietly removed them out of his royal way by summarily putting them
all to death. Amongst other statues which adorn this gateway are to be
found those of Don Diego Parcelos, the founder of the city in 884, of
the Cid--the pride of Spain and especially of Burgos, in which city he
was born, and where his bones still rest--and of Fernan Gonzalez who
redeemed the district from the yoke of the Kings of Leon, to whom it had
been tributary, an