ich
only the springing has been built. In the north transept and in one of
the chapels there still stand great stone reredoses once much gilt, but
now all broken and dusty and almost hidden behind the diligences and
cabs with which the church is filled. The great fault in Sao Domingos is
the use of the same order both for the tall pilasters in the chancel,
and for the shorter ones in the side chapels; so that the taller, which
are twice as long and of about the same diameter, are ridiculously lanky
and thin.

[Sidenote: Coimbra, Carmo.]

Almost opposite Sao Domingos is the church of the Carmo, begun by Frey
Amador Arraes, bishop of Portalegre about 1597. The church is an oblong
hall about 135 feet long, including the chancel, by nearly 40 wide,
roofed with a coffered barrel vault. On each side of the nave are two
rectangular and one semicircular chapel; the vaults of the chapel are
beautifully enriched with sunk panels of various shapes. The great
reredos covers the whole east wall with two stories of coupled columns,
niches and painted panels.

[Sidenote: Coimbra, Graca.]

Almost exactly the same is the Graca church next door, both very plain
and almost devoid of interest outside.

[Sidenote: Sao Bento.]

Equally plain is the unfinished front of the church of Sao Bento up on
the hill near the botanical gardens. It was designed by Baltazar Alvares
for Dom Diogo de Murca, rector of the University in 1600, but not
consecrated till thirty-four years later. The church, which inside is
about 164 feet long, consists of a nave with side chapels, measuring 60
feet by about 35, a transept of the same width, and a square chancel.
Besides there is a deep porch in front between two oblong towers, which
have never been carried up above the roof.

The porch is entered by three arches, one in the middle wider and higher
than the others. Above are three niches with shell heads, and then three
windows, two oblong and one round, all set in rectangular frames. At the
sides there are broad pilasters below, with the usual lanky Doric
pilasters above reaching to the main cornice, above which there now
rises only an unfinished gable end. The inside is much more pleasing.
The barrel vaults of the chapels are beautifully panelled and enriched
with egg and tongue; between each, two pilasters rise only to the
moulding from which the chapel arches spring, and support smaller
pilasters with a niche between. In the spandrels of the arches a