Part 10

Of the four Escuelas Mayores (High Schools)--San Bartolomé, del Arzobispo, Cuenca, and Oviedo--only the two first remain. These colleges bore the same relation to the Escuelas Menores that our Staff College does to Sandhurst. Here graduates were prepared for the highest posts in church and state. The College of San Bartolomé was founded in 1401 by Bishop de Anaya, whose sons were educated within its walls, and transferred to the present site sixteen years later. Vergara says that it produced seven cardinals, eighteen archbishops, seventy bishops, and innumerable judges and councillors of state. Like so many other similar institutions, originally intended for the poor and scholarly, the college soon became the preserve of the rich and aristocratic. The quarterings on the applicant’s shield were more carefully examined than his pretensions to scholarship, and when Carlos III. undertook to reform the college, it had earned the name of a hot-bed of vice. Its inward reformation corresponded with its material restoration. Little or nothing remains of the original structure. A spacious flight of steps leads up to the handsome portico in the Grecian style, with its four Corinthian columns and triangular pediment. The whole building is simple and massive, and crowned by a balustrade, in the centre of which are displayed the arms of the Anayas; the main façade the chapel with a heavy dome and Churrigueresque entrance. The inner court or _patio_ is surrounded by a double gallery, the lower formed by sixteen Doric columns, the upper by as many Ionic. The magnificent staircase, dividing after the first flight into two branches, with its arches, Corinthian columns, and windows all in stone, surpasses any similar feat of architecture in Spain.

In the western part of the city, where abundant evidence yet remains of the frightful destruction wrought by the French in Wellington’s day, stands the interesting Colegio del Arzobispo, better known as the Colegio de los Irlandeses. Founded by Alfonso de Fonseca, successively Archbishop of Santiago and Toledo, it dates from the year 1521. The portal is in the classic style, with eight Ionic columns, a medallion of Santiago, and the archiepiscopal escutcheon; the adjoining façade is of the late Gothic. Above it rises the square cupola of the chapel designed by Pedro de Ibarra, and containing a retablo which ranks one of Berruguete’s finest works. The subjects of the eight panels of which it is composed are: the Ascension, Baptism, Flight into Egypt, the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Presentation in the Temple, the Finding of Moses, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, and Ananias and Sapphira. The whole was executed in less than eighteen months. Under a simple marble slab rests the body of Archbishop de Fonseca.

The galleries of the _patio_ are formed by fluted columns and adorned with the heads of warriors very skilfully executed.

This college is now occupied, as its modern name implies, by Irish theological students, whose original seminary was founded by Philip II. in 1592. A college for Scottish Catholics was founded at the same time in Valladolid.

Of the forty colleges which once composed the University of Salamanca, the three described above alone remain. Most have utterly disappeared; of others, a few columns or chambers still exist, forming part now of buildings of another sort. The Colegio de Calatrava has survived, as a building, the three other colleges founded by the great military orders. It was extensively restored at the end of the eighteenth century, but the old doorway was spared with the saint’s head and knights upholding the banner of the order carved above it. The fine court has been dismantled, and the large chapel with transept and cupola has been stripped of the paintings and altar-pieces which once adorned it.

MINOR CHURCHES

Among the sacred edifices of Salamanca, next to the two cathedrals, ranks the church and convent of the Dominicans, variously known as Santo Domingo and San Estéban. The Dominicans, on their establishment at Salamanca in the year 1221, were first housed at San Juan el Blanco. Thirty years later they removed to San Estéban. Their convent was honoured in 1484 by the presence of Columbus, who found a generous host, a powerful protector, and a mind sufficiently broad to comprehend his project in the Friar Diego de Deza, afterwards grand inquisitor of Spain. His scheme, rejected by the university, was carefully considered by this learned man, and recommended to the queen. In gratitude, Columbus named the first town founded by him in the New World, Santo Domingo, after the order which had befriended him. From this monastery, too, departed the first Christian missionaries for America.

The building itself, unfortunately, has disappeared. It was pulled down in 1524 to make room for the present superb edifice, designed by Juan de Alava, the fellow-workman of Hontañon, who was succeeded by four other architects, till the completion of the work in 1610. The church is accounted one of the two or three most important monuments of the middle Renaissance period in Spain. The main façade, in the soft sandstone usual here, exhibits a marvellous profusion of figures, ‘excellently wrought, beautiful of themselves,’ remarks a critic, ‘but lacking in appropriateness, and not forming a part of a comprehensive scheme.’ On each side of the doorway, between pillars, are seen the figures of four of the Dominican saints; above, between four similarly placed statues of the doctors of the church, is an admirable relief of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, executed by Juan Ceroni of Milan, who has carved his name and the date (1610) on the stones which were the instruments of the saint’s death. Above this, again, is a Crucifixion, overshadowed by the great arch which encloses the whole façade. The medallions and friezes exhibit very careful and graceful workmanship.

The side façades are mainly Gothic in character. Each buttress is surmounted by an ornate pinnacle. The nave is almost as spacious as that of the cathedral. The six-pointed vaults spring from fluted columns, and are brilliant with gilding. The windows of three lights and the rose-windows above are filled with good stained glass. The gorgeous retablo, which cost the Duke of Alba 4000 of his pine trees, is the work of Churriguera; its garishness is redeemed by the fine painting of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen by Claudio Coello, and the curious twelfth-century image of the Virgin de la Vega in gilt bronze. Over the choir, built by Bishop de Aranjo, is the fine Apotheosis of St. Dominic, a fresco by Palomino. The frescoes over the altar of the Rosary and in the chapel of the Cristo de la Luz are by his contemporary, Villamor. In the chapel of St. John is the tomb of Don Lope de Paz, the defender of Rhodes and Eubœa, and in a wooden urn in the Reliquary chapel are contained the ashes of the terror of the Low Countries, Fernando de Toledo, Duke of Alba.

The chapter-house is a grandiose apartment, with pillars of the Doric order, and a Corinthian altar beneath a canopy. Here may be seen some bas-reliefs of the thirteenth century from the old church. In the magnificent sacristy is the tomb of Bishop Herrera of Tuy, who died in 1632, and is shown in a kneeling posture. More interesting is the cloister, with its early Renaissance arcading and fanwork vaulting. Some of the medallions and reliefs which adorn the cloister were designed by Alfonso Sardiña in 1626. The noble staircase adorned by a Magdalene, which was executed by order of the illustrious Dominican theologian, Fray Domingo Soto, of whom it was punningly said, ‘Qui scit Sotum, scit totum.’

The seminary, built in 1617 by Gómez de Mora for the Society of Jesus, is a building of the type more commonly admired by Spaniards than other peoples. It is vast and heavy, commanding respect by its bulk rather than its proportions. Over the façade, with its six gigantic columns, rise two lofty steeples, flanking an acroterium with very bad statuary. The cupola or lantern is not ungracefully constructed, but spoilt with indifferent ornamentation. The interior is cold and monotonous, though free from the extravagant decoration of the epoch of its construction. The sacristy, which contains four copies of paintings by Rubens, is vast even for this vast church, the richest Jesuit establishment in Spain.

Another great but much less admirable pile is the church of the Recollect Augustine nuns, the convent having been founded in 1626 by the favourite of Felipe IV., the Count of Monterey, as a retreat for his sister, Doña Catilina. The architect was Juan Fontana. The church is in the usual shape of a Latin cross, and is richly adorned with coloured marbles, jasper, and lapis lazuli. The architecture was spoilt by injudicious repairs effected on the collapse of the dome in 1680. The tombs of the founder and his wife are in indifferent taste, but the statues are good. The church is rich in paintings. Ribera’s Conception hangs over the high altar, and the handsome retablo is adorned by his Virgin de la Piedad. In the transept are two other works of the same master--Our Lady of the Rosary and the Nativity. These paintings were bought in Naples by Monterey, then viceroy, at the time of the papal pronouncement on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. According to Ford, it is believed that better pictures are preserved in the convent itself, which is not open to visitors.

San Benito is an interesting church, originally founded by the Galician settlers in 1104, and rebuilt in the late Gothic style by the Maldonado family in the fifteenth century. The tombs of several members of that family are within. The statues of Arias Perez Maldonado and his wife lie to the right and left of the chancel. The knight wears armour, and a page rests at his feet; the lady wears the costume of the age of Isabel the Catholic. Here also sleeps that haughty lord of Monleón, whose wife was so reluctant to save his life at the expense of his castle. From this church the Maldonado faction took the name of San Benito; the opposite faction, descended from Maria la Brava, affected the church of Santo Tomé de los Caballeros. There are some good tombs of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries in the church of San Isidoro, founded by the French settlers of Count Raymond. The Portuguese built the little church dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury, which still preserves a triple apse and windows in the Romanesque style. The doorway is Gothic, and the tomb of Bishop de Velasco, supported by lions, obviously of the Renaissance. San Martin, built by settlers from Toro, though injured by a fire in 1854, preserves many ancient features. Some of the columns of the nave are Byzantine, and the doorway, with its triple-pointed arch, belongs to the best Gothic period. The south front is Renaissance. This is the burial-place of the Santisteban family. An architectural curiosity to which Street calls attention, is the little circular church of San Marcos, close to the wall at the north end of the city, with its three apses vaulted with semi-domes, while the rest of the edifice is roofed with wood. This odd little church was built as a chapel royal by Alfonso IX. in 1202.

The only church of interest besides those enumerated above is the Sancti Spiritus, built about 1190, and granted to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in 1222. Afterwards, with the adjacent convent, it passed into the possession of an aristocratic sisterhood. Rebuilt in 1541 by Leonor de Acevedo, the portal is in the Renaissance style, and the interior in late Gothic. The lower choir has fine artesonado work and well-carved stalls. The retablo, which dates from 1659, displays fine reliefs of the life of St. James, and good statues of the apostles. Near the entrance are the tombs of the great benefactors of the convent, Martin Alfonso, natural son of Alfonso IX., and his wife, Maria Mendez, a Portuguese lady (1270). Another tomb is that of Pedro Vidal, an ecclesiastic, who died in 1363.

DOMESTIC AND MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS

Salamanca contains several old mansions of the nobility, which might well have delighted Prout. However remote may have been the date of their foundation, later restoration has given them for the most part a plateresque or Renaissance aspect. The Casa de las Salinas was built for the Fonseca family in 1538, and was afterwards used as a place of storage for salt. It is considered to be the best example of the plateresque style in the city. The four arches of the principal façade spring from granite columns with very well chiselled capitals. Good also are the busts in medallions between the arches. The second story is pierced by three square windows, supported by splendid masculine figures, emblematic of the victories of Charles V., and in the best style of the period. Hardly inferior to these are the cherubs and grotesques on the columns of the jambs. Angels’ heads appear over the arches of the gallery which crowns the edifice. The beautiful _patio_ is adorned by arches similar to those of the façade. Round the court runs a mean wooden gallery carried on sixteen brackets superbly carved with terminal figures in every sort of posture, and supporting delightfully fantastic monsters. These figures are among the best sculptures in Salamanca, and merit close examination.

We find the five lilies of the Maldonados, those old Capulets of the city, displayed over the entrance of the Casa de las Conchas, built for the family in 1512. The house derives its name from the thirteen rows of shells decorating its front. The most interesting features of the building are the windows, each divided by a slender central shaft, and with delicate traceries in the early plateresque style. Quadrado states that the Jesuits, wishing to acquire the site, offered an ounce of gold for each of the shells, but the owners declined to give up the property at any price.

The unfinished palace of the counts of Monterey dates from the same epoch (1530). It is a massive building of three low stories, the upper pierced with an elegant gallery, and surmounted by a beautiful balustrade composed of figures and foliage intertwined. Above the general level rise square towers with open galleries, exhibiting some good decorative details. The lower stories of the mansion are devoid of interest.

Very suggestive of Salamanca’s fiery, flourishing days is the device over the doorway of an old house in the little Plaza de San Cebrian--‘Quod tibi non vis, alteri non facias.’ Close by in an underground cellar the famous Enrique de Villena is said to have studied magic under a sacristan from a neighbouring church. Not far away, we believe, is a house which we failed to find, called the Casa de las Batallas, where a temporary peace was patched up between the rival factions of the city in 1478--a peace commemorated by a text sculptured above the arch, ‘Ira odium generat, concordia nutrit amorem.’

Close to the Casa de las Salinas stands another memorial of that stormy time--the battered Torre del Clavero, built in 1470 by a knight of the Order of Alcantara, Francisco de Sotomayor. Its eight faces are strengthened by projecting bartizan turrets, not placed as is usual at the angles, and adorned with rude sculpture. It forms an interesting example of Castilian military architecture. Close by were formerly the headquarters of the Templars, and not far away is the street called after the ‘Yellow Well,’ from which St. Juan of Sahagun miraculously rescued a drowning child.

The centre of the city is occupied by the fine Plaza Mayor, planned in 1720 by Don Andres de Quiñones. The square compares very favourably with the finest open spaces of the kind in Europe. It is surrounded by a colonnade of twenty-two arches on each side, above which rise three stories, to a pierced parapet with pinnacles. Archways, surmounted by an acroterium, in the centre of each side, afford communication with the adjoining streets. The arcades are adorned with medallions of Spanish worthies. The bust of Cortes is said to mark the site of the house he lodged in when a student. In this square, which is occupied by gardens and is the fashionable promenade, bull-fights on an enormous scale have been organised, and from the balconies the townsmen have more than once looked down on the death-agonies of some wretched malefactor. One side is occupied by the town hall (Ayuntamiento). Its architecture is strictly in keeping with the surrounding line of houses. The façade, supported on a gallery of five arches, is flanked by fluted columns, statues appear between the windows, and on each side of the clock-tower rising above the parapet.

This modern centre of what activity Salamanca can boast may be compared with the old resorts of the population--the Plaza de la Yerba, and the Plaza de San Boal, where Englishmen will look with interest at the palace of the Marques de Almarza, built about the end of the fifteenth century. Here lodged the Iron Duke in those days when Spain and England stood side by side for war, as they now do, and we hope may ever do, in the cause of peace.

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press