ble
and on the three sides of the porch, which also has great round
conical-topped buttresses or turrets at the angles.

Inside there are still fine tiles, but the sgraffito frieze has nearly
disappeared from the outer cornice.

There is also an interesting church somewhat in the same style as Sao
Braz, but with aisles and brick flying buttresses at Vianna d'Alemtejo
near Alvito.

CHAPTER IX

MOORISH CARPENTRY

If it was only in the south that Moorish masons built in stone or brick,
their carpenters had a much wider range. The wooden ceilings of as late
as the middle of the seventeenth century may show no Eastern detail, yet
in the method of their construction they are all ultimately descended
from Moorish models. Such ceilings are found all over the country, but
curiously enough the finest examples of truly Eastern work are found in
the far north at Caminha and in the island of Madeira at Funchal.

[Sidenote: Aguas Santas.]

The old romanesque church at Aguas Santas near Oporto has a roof, simple
and unadorned, the tie-beams of which are coupled in the Moorish manner.
The two beams about a foot apart are joined in the centre by four short
pieces of wood set diagonally so as to form a kind of knot. This is very
common in Moorish roofs, and may be seen at Seville and elsewhere. The
rest of the roof is boarded inside, boards being also fastened to the
underside of the collar beams.

[Sidenote: Azurara.]

At Azurara the ties are single, but the whole is boarded as at Aguas
Santas, and this is also the case at Villa do Conde and elsewhere.

In the palace chapel at Cintra, already described, the boarding is
covered with a pattern of interlacing strips, but later on panelling was
used, usually with simple mouldings. Such is the roof in the nave of the
church of Nossa Senhora do Olival at Thomar, probably of the seventeenth
century, and in many houses, as for instance in the largest hall in the
castle at Alvito. From such simple panelled ceilings the splendid
elaboration of those in the palace at Cintra was derived.

[Sidenote: Caminha.]

The roofs at Caminha and at Funchal are rather different. At Caminha the
roof is divided into bays of such a size that each of the three
divisions, the two sloping sides and the flat centre under the collar
ties, is cut into squares. In the sloping sides these squares are
divided from each other by a strip of boarding covering the space
occupied by three rafters. On th