Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/546

530 SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. PArt III. Moors, and we must judge them by their own standard, and by their success in attaining the object they aimed at. In San Cristo the walls are sufficiently solid and plain, and on the whole the forms and decorations are judiciously and skilfully applied to attain the requisite height without raising the columns oi- giving any appearance of forced contrivances for that purpose. In this respect it shows a considerable advance on the design of the older part of the mosque at Cordoba, than which it is probably at least a century more modern ; but it does not show that completeness which the art attained in the 10th century, wlien the sanctuary at Cordoba was erected. These four buildings mark four very distinct stages in the history of the art — the early mosque at Cordoba being the first, the San Cristo de la Luz the second ; the third and most perfect is well represented by all the building at the southern end of the mosque at Cordoba; and the fourth by Sta. Maria la Blanca, where all trace of Roman and Byzantine art has wholly disappeared. A fifth stage is represented by another synagogue at Toledo called El Transitu ; but this is so essentially merely a gorgeously ornamented room that it hardly serves to be classed among monumental buildings ; besides which this stage is so well illustrated in the palaces of Seville and Granada that it is not necessary to dwell on minor examples. Had the great mosques of Seville, Toledo, or Granada been spared to us it Avould perhaps have been easier and better to restrict our illustrations to sacred edifices alone; but they — at least certainly the two first named — have wholly disappeared to make way for the splendid cathedrals which stand where they once stood, and which have obliterated nearly every trace of their previous existence. In the northern cities the national ])ride and stei-n bigotry of the Spaniards- have long ago effaced all traces of this religion. The Giralda at Seville. None of the mosques we have been describing possess minarets,^ nor is there anything in Spain to replace the aspiring forms of the East except the Giralda at Seville. This is a more massive tower than is, I believe, to be found anywhere else as the work of a Moslem architect. At the base it is a square of about 45 ft., and rises without diminution to the height of 185 ft. from the ground; to this a belfry was added in 1568 by Ferdinand Riaz, making it 90 feet higher; and unfortunately we have nothing to enable us to restore with certainty the Saracenic termination which must have been displaced to make room for this addition. In the annexed woodcut (No. 975) it is rep- resented as restored by Girault de Prangey, and from a comparison with the towers of Fez and Morocco, erected by the same king, it is-