beautiful examples
of the Mozarabe or Moorish style which once covered the piers of the
nave, as well as the wooden choir gallery with its finely panelled under
side, have been swept away by a recent well-meaning if mistaken
restoration. The outside of the church is more unusual than the inside.
The two remaining original apses are much hidden by the sacristy, built
probably by Bishop Jorge de Castello Branco in 1593, but in their
details they are greatly like those of the church of San Isidoro at
Leon, and being like it built of fine limestone, are much more
delicately ornamented than are those of any of the granite churches
further north. The side aisles are but little lower than the central
aisle or than the transepts, and are all crowned with battlements very
like those on the castle of Guimaraes. The buttresses are only shallow
strips, which in the transepts are united by round arches, but in the
aisles end among the battlements in a larger merlon. The west front is
the most striking and original part of the whole church. Below, at the
sides, a perfectly plain window lights the aisles, some feet above it
runs a string course, on which stands a small two-light window for the
gallery, flanked by larger blind arches, and then many feet of blank
walling ending in battlements. Between these two aisle ends there
projects about ten feet a large doorway or porch. This doorway is of
considerable size; some of its eight shafts are curiously twisted and
carved, its capitals are very refined and elaborate, and its arches well
moulded with, as at Lisbon, small bosses in the hollows. The abacus is
plain, and the broad pilasters which carry the outermost order are
beautifully carved on the broader face with a small running pattern of
leaves. The same 'black book' which tells of the bishop's gifts to the
church, tells how a certain Master Robert came four times from Lisbon to
perfect the work of the door, and how each time he received seven
morabitinos, besides ten for his expenses, as well as bread, wine and
meat for his four apprentices and food for his four asses. It is not
often that the name of a man who worked on a mediaeval church has been
so preserved, and it is worth noticing that the west door at Lisbon has
on it exactly the same ball ornament as that with which Master Robert
and his four helpers enriched the archway here. Above the door runs an
arched corbel table on which stands the one large window which the
church pos