The Picturesque Antiquities Of Spain Part 8

In the Transito there is an Adoration, a charming picture, apparently by Rembrandt. There are here and there good pictures among the other churches, but none very remarkable. In general, the most attractive objects are the old picture-frames, and other gilded ornaments and wood carvings. All these, in the taste of the commencement of the last century and earlier, which is at present so much in request, are in such profusion, as would draw tears of admiration from the eyes of a Parisian upholsterer, and showers of bank notes from the purses of furniture collectors.

You will not, I am sure, by this time, object to our quitting Toledo, and making a short excursion in its environs. I shall therefore request you to accompany me to the ruins of a Moorish palace, on the banks of the Tagus, a mile distant from the town, called the Palacio de Galiana.

The Princess Galiana was the daughter of Galafre, one of the earlier Arab Kings of Toledo. The widely extended fame of her beauty, is said to have fired the imagination of Charles, son of Pepin, King of France, who resolved to throw himself at her feet as a suitor, and forthwith repaired to Toledo. However glowing the terms in which report had represented her charms, he found them surpa.s.sed by the reality; but a prince of a neighbouring state had forestalled him in his suit. This obstacle did not, however, deter him from persisting in his resolution.

He forthwith challenged his rival to mortal combat; and, clearing his road to the hand of the princess with the point of his lance, married her, and carried her back with him to Paris.

The attachment of her father to this princess is said to have been such from her earliest childhood, that he gave himself up entirely to this affection--devoting all his wealth to the gratification of her caprices.

The Arab palace, now no longer in existence, took its name from hers, in consequence of a new one having been erected for her by her father, adjoining his own, at a period at which she had scarcely grown out of childhood. The two residences being occupied by succeeding princes as one, received the appellation of los Palacios, (the Palaces) of Galiana.

In addition to her town residence, she soon after had the other palace constructed about a mile from Toledo. To arrive at the ruins, we pa.s.s the bridge of Alcantara, and follow the rose-tree promenade. From this a path on the left-hand leads to the spot across a field in garden-like cultivation. The selection made by the Arab princess of this situation, proves her to have possessed, in addition to her beauty, a consummate taste and intelligence of rural life.

The Tagus--a name, by the way, more deserving of poetic fame than many a more widely echoed stream--in this spot, as if conscious of the pains he must shortly undergo, while das.h.i.+ng through the deep and narrow chasm through which he must force a pa.s.sage around Toledo, seems to linger, desirous of putting off the fated storm. His course becomes more circuitous as he approaches; and indulging in a hundred irregularities of form, he plays round several small thickly wooded islands, penetrating with innumerable eddies and back currents, into flowery nooks and recesses; while here and there he spreads out in a wide sheet his apparently motionless waters, as if seeking to sleep away the remainder of his days on these green and luxurious banks.

In the midst of this delicious region, which recalls to the recollection some of the more favoured spots in England, but which, with the addition of the Spanish climate in early summer, is superior to them all, was placed the palace. The valley for a considerable distance still bears the name of the Garden of the King,--Huerta del Rey. The site of part of the pleasure grounds immediately adjoining the river, is left wild, and covered with woods; and the remainder is converted into a farm in the highest state of cultivation. The ruin consists of three sides of a not very large quadrangle; the ma.s.sive walls of which are pierced with two stories of arched windows. The remainder of the edifice was doubtless less solid, and has entirely disappeared.

Many a tale of romance would be gathered--many a stirring scene recorded, could so precious a doc.u.ment be brought to light as a chronicle drawn up by some St. Simon of the Court of Toledo, who had recorded the daily events of which this retreat was the theatre, during the time it served as a residence for several successive sovereigns. But in this land words have always been fewer than deeds, and records are the rarest sort of subsisting monuments. One anecdote, however, is transmitted, of which this spot was the scene, in the time of the last but one of the Moorish princes who reigned at Toledo, before its surrender to Alonzo the Sixth.

Alonzo was himself one of the actors on the occasion. In early life he had been deprived by his brother Sancho, King of Castile, of the portion of the kingdoms which fell to his share by the will of his father, Ferdinand the First. On his expulsion from his inheritance he took refuge at the court of the Arab king of Toledo, by whom he was received with every mark of favour which could have been lavished on a friend.

The Moor (for the family then reigning was not Arab, although the two races are constantly confounded in Spanish histories) gave him a palace, and settled on him splendid revenues, to be continued during the time he should think fit to accept his hospitality. He even sent invitations to all the friends and followers of his guest, in order that he might be surrounded with his own court.

Alonzo, touched by this delicate hospitality, attached himself warmly to his host; his friends.h.i.+p for whom (I believe a solitary instance in those times among the sovereigns in Spain) lasted until the death of the latter. The youthful exile, thus handsomely treated, pa.s.sed much of his time in the society of his royal protector.

On one occasion, the court being at the country palace of Galiana, the king and his attendants were reclining in the cool shade of the garden, and Alonzo at a short distance, apparently asleep. The king, pointing to the town, which towered on its precipice immediately in front of the party, was expatiating on the strength of its position. All agreed that it was impregnable; until a brother of the monarch observed, that there was one mode of warfare against which it would not hold out: and he proceeded to explain his plan, which consisted of an annual devastation of the valley of the Tagus at the time of harvest, to be executed by an invading army, which might be disbanded during the winter months. This system, he maintained, would inevitably reduce the city by famine to the necessity of a surrender.

No sooner was the last phrase uttered, than all present in an instant struck by the same thought, turned towards the sleeper; and the greater number, filled with suspicion respecting the reality of his slumbers, addressed significant looks to the king, the intention of which could not be mistaken, and which boded no good to Alonzo. Whatever might have been the feelings of the Moor at this moment, he took no further notice of the incident, and allowed his guest to terminate his nap when he thought proper.

When the death of Sancho took place before Zamora, Alonzo was still at Toledo. The intelligence being conveyed to him by a confidential messenger from his sister, he lost no time in taking leave of his host, who wished him success with every demonstration of friends.h.i.+p, and repairing to Burgos. There, after some hesitation, the n.o.bles consented to his invest.i.ture with the sovereignty. During his brilliant reign he resisted several tempting opportunities of breaking with his Moorish ally and former host, and thus adding to his dominions,--and preserved his friends.h.i.+p and loyalty unstained. After the death of the Moorish king, he, however, speedily fell out with his successor. War was declared on both sides, and it was resolved to attack Toledo. The well known result was, the taking of the town after seven years, the time mentioned in the garden of Galiana, and by means of the annually repeated devastation of the Vega, according to the plan imagined and described in the above mentioned conversation.

Returning by the Rose-tree Walk, immediately on approaching the bridge, an advanced portion of the cliff which bounds the road on the left detaches itself from the rest towards the summit, which rises in a circular form. On it stands the Castle of San Servando, one of the most picturesque of the Arab remains existing in this part of Spain. The origin of this fort is uncertain. Some attribute it to the Romans, and consider the Moorish windows and ornaments to be subsequent additions, from their being constructed with bricks instead of the same stone as the rest of the walls. But this is not a sufficient reason, since the same peculiarity exists in all the Arab edifices in Toledo. In fact, the reason is evident. The hard black sort of stone used for the walls, would almost have defied the chisel which should have attempted to fas.h.i.+on its surface into the delicate forms required by the Arab mode of decorating. This argument, therefore, being set aside--remains the masonry, which is more likely from its appearance to be Gothic or Arab, than Roman.

It is probably entirely Arab. It encloses a quadrangular s.p.a.ce of about a quarter of an acre, and is a ruin; but the walls and towers are almost entire. There are three small towers, that is of small diameter, but lofty; and two larger, one of which is circular: the other is a parallelogram terminating by a semicircle at one of its extremities.

This tower has lost apparently about a third of its elevation. Their walls are so perfectly constructed as to appear externally like solid rocks smoothed and rounded. Each larger tower contains two rectangular brick projections, in which are small elegantly-arched openings for windows.

The edifice was thoroughly repaired by Don Pedro Tenorio, archbishop of Toledo; the same who built the bridge of San Martin. It has since played its part in numberless wars, and was at length reduced to a ruin during the insurrection headed by Juan de Padilla, at the commencement of Charles the Fifth's reign.

During the Peninsular war of the present century, the old battlements echoed once more with the sounds of warfare. It was occupied by a body of French, who repaired a portion of the masonry at the summits of the towers, and erected a low wall along the whole length of the Toledo side. They were able, from their position, to batter the Alcazar, which is immediately opposite, but on a higher level; and to command the bridge of Alcantara, and road to Aranjuez.

In the other valley which extends to the west of Toledo exist the remains of a circus for chariot races, generally supposed, at first sight, to be Roman. They present, in fact, every characteristic of a Roman work. The rough interior masonry is all that remains; and that only rising to a height of from three to four feet from the ground, with the exception of a single arch. The earth mingled with ruins, has apparently filled up much of the interior, and surrounding the exterior simultaneously, has only left visible the upper portion of the edifice.

The end which is in the best preservation is of a semicircular form.

From it the sides run in parallel directions, and lose themselves in the ruins of a more recently erected convent. They are traceable to a length of more than four hundred yards. The width is two hundred and ninety feet within the building, at the present elevation of the ground, and three hundred and twenty feet on the outside, which appears to have consisted of a series of arches. There are also remains of an amphitheatre adjoining the semicircular end of the stadium.

There being no indication of the Romans having at any period planted any considerable establishment at Toledo, in fact no author but Livy having noticed the place, and he but slightly; the antiquaries have sought for the origin of these monuments among Gothic traditions; and it is believed by them, that they were erected during the early part of the sixth century, by Theudio, a Gothic King, who manifested much attachment to Roman customs.

LETTER XIII.

CASTLES OF ALMONACID, GUADAMUR, MONTALBAN, AND ESCALONA. TORRIJOS.

Toledo.

I met this morning with an entertaining scene, in a quarter in which it might be the least looked for. The archiepiscopal palace contains an excellent library, which has always been open to the public. Although the revenues of the see are now withdrawn, and the palace is vacant, the books remain on the shelves, and the head librarian, a _racionero_ of the cathedral, has the good nature to throw open the rooms from eleven to twelve, on all days of labour, (as those are called on which no saint is celebrated,) although he no longer enjoys a salary, nor the means of providing a single attendant to see to what pa.s.ses in the different apartments.

I was occupied this morning in the _racionero's_ room, when he received a visit from two French tourists, both persons of notoriety; one being a member of the chamber of deputies, and one of the leaders of the republican party; and the other, I believe, also in the chamber, but princ.i.p.ally known as a writer of political pamphlets, in which the French reigning family, and the powers that be are lashed with unwearying severity. The first mentioned personage commenced the conversation in Spanish, which the other did not speak: but on hearing the librarian make an observation in French, the pamphleteer took up the argument in his own language, and nearly in the following terms.

"As this gentleman understands French, I will explain to him the object of my tour," and addressing himself to the Spaniard, he continued--"I find it a relief, in the midst of my arduous political duties, to make an occasional excursion in a foreign country, and thus to enlarge the sphere of my usefulness, by promoting the cause of humanity in the various localities I visit. It is thus that I have recently pa.s.sed through Andalucia, and have recommended, and, I doubt not, successfully, to the princ.i.p.al personages possessed of influence in its numerous cities, the establishment of all sorts of useful inst.i.tutions. I am now in Toledo, animated with the same zeal. I have obtained an introduction to you, Sir, understanding that you are an individual possessed of considerable influence, and enjoying unbounded means of carrying out the projects, which, I doubt not, you will agree with me in considering essential to the well being and improvement, both moral and material, of your ancient locality."

During this exordium, the Spaniard, who happens to be possessed of a vivacity, unusual in his countrymen, and a sort of impatience of manner, had endeavoured more than once to obtain a hearing. At length he replied, that he feared it would not be in his power to carry out the views which Monsieur did him the honour to communicate to him, owing to the absence of sufficient resources at his disposal, whether for public purposes, or in his individual and private capacity.

The Frenchman was not, however, to be so easily discouraged. "This, Sir," he replied, "is the result of your modesty; but I am persuaded that I have only to make my objects understood, in order to obtain their complete execution. For instance, one of the most insignificant in expense, but of infinite utility, is this: it would be a source of much gratification to me, if you would have the most conspicuous spots throughout Toledo ornamented with statues, representing, with greater or less resemblance, all the personages, distinguished from various causes in the history of Spain, to whom Toledo has given birth. These works I should wish to be entrusted to artists of acknowledged talent, and"--he was proceeding with constantly increasing rapidity of enunciation, when the exhausted librarian's patience being at an end, he interrupted the torrent. "However grateful the city of Toledo and myself must be for your interest and advice, I am grieved to repeat that my anxiety to comply with your wishes is totally powerless. We are without funds; and I, for my own part, can a.s.sure you that I am _sans le sou_. Do me the favour to name any service of a less expensive nature, and I shall rejoice in proving to you my entire devotion. Excuse my _impolitesse_. I am called for in the next room. I kiss your hand." It is needless, in fact the attempt would baffle human intelligence, to conjecture what the real object of these very liberal and very political gentlemen might be, in honouring all parts of Spain with their visit.

The more distant environs of Toledo, princ.i.p.ally towards the south and south-east, are remarkable for a profusion of ruined castles. Supposing a circle drawn at a distance of thirty miles from Toledo as its centre, and divided, as it would be, by the Tagus, descending from east to west, into two equal parts, the southern half, and the western portion of the other, are so plentifully strewed with these fortresses, that, in many instances, five or six are visible from the same point of view.

A chain of low mountains crosses the southern portion of the semicircle, in a parallel line with the Tagus. Some of its branches advance into this region, and terminate in detached peaks, which have afforded to the aristocracy of former times favourable positions for their strongholds; and a still greater number of proprietors, not being possessed of the same advantages of site, were compelled to confide in the solidity of their walls and turrets, which they constructed in the plain, usually adjoining the villages or towns inhabited by their va.s.sals. The greater number of these edifices are of a date subsequent to the surrender of Toledo to the Christians, and were erected on the distribution of the different towns and estates among the n.o.bility, on their being successively evacuated by their Moorish proprietors. The Count of Fuensalida, Duke of Frias, is the most considerable landed proprietor on this side of Toledo, and several of the ruined castles have descended to him.

I will not fatigue you by the enumeration of all these remains, of which but a few are remarkable for picturesque qualities, and still fewer for the possession of historical interest, as far as can be known at present. One of them, situated ten miles to the south-east of Toledo, and visible from its immediate neighbourhood, attracts notice owing to its striking position. Occupying the summit of a conical hill, which stands alone on the plain, and placed at four times the elevation of Windsor Castle, you expect to find it connected with the history of some knightly Peveril of the Peak, but learn with surprise that it was the stronghold of the Archbishops of Toledo; and was erected by Don Pedro Tenorio, the same prelate who rebuilt the bridge of San Martin, and repaired the Moorish castle of San Servando.

Before you ascend the peak, you pa.s.s through the village of Almonacid, from which the castle takes its name, and which, unlike that more recently erected pile, is completely Arab in aspect. All the houses are entered through back courts, and present no difference of appearance, whether shops, taverns, _posadas_, or private residences. After tying my horse in the stable of the posada, and giving him his meal of barley, which he had carried in the _alforjas_ (travelling bags) suspended behind the saddle, I took my own provisions out of the opposite receptacle, and established myself before the kitchen fire.

On my asking for wine, the hostess requested I would furnish her with two _quartos_ (one halfpenny) with which she purchased me a pint, at the tavern next door. The host of the posada, who was seated next me, and a friend at the opposite corner of the fire-place, favoured me, during my meal, with their reminiscences of a battle fought here, during the Peninsular war. They had not heard of the English having taken any part in the quarrel, with the exception of the old woman, who recollected perfectly the name of Wellington, and p.r.o.nounced it as perfectly, but thought he had been a Spanish general. They described the battle as a hard fought one, and won by the French, who marched up the hill with fixed bayonets, as the old host, almost blind, described by a.s.suming the att.i.tude of a soldier jogging up a hill, and dislodged the Spanish garrison from the castle.

I could have willingly pa.s.sed a week in this village, so exciting are the remains of Arab manners to the curiosity. The name of the place had already raised my expectations, but the blind landlord of the posada unconsciously won my attachment from the first moment. No sooner was I seated, than, leaning towards me, and patting my arm to draw my attention, he pointed to his two eyes. At first I was at a loss to understand him; but soon discovered that he was desirous of knowing whether I was sufficiently versed in the mysteries of Esculapius, to prescribe for the relief of his suffering organs. To this trait he soon added one still more characteristic, by actually speaking of Toledo, by its Moorish appellation Tolaite. Had he worn a turban, sat cross-legged and offered me coffee and a pipe, I should not have been more taken by surprise, than by this Arab expression a.s.sailing the ear, in the heart of Spain, ten miles from the town itself, in which the name had probably not been uttered for three or four centuries.

The builder of the castle of Almonacid must have placed more confidence in the difficulties of approach, than in the solidity of his structure.

The walls are partly of stone, and partly of _tapia_, or earth. There only remain, the exterior wall, enclosing an area of about sixty to seventy yards in diameter, and of a pentagonal form; and, in the centre, the keep, a quadrangular tower, somewhat higher than the rest of the buildings. There are no traces of living apartments. At each of the five angles of the outer wall, is a small tower, and others in the centres of some of the fronts; those looking to the west are circular, the rest square. The nearer view of this ruin causes disappointment, as it appears to have been a slovenly and hasty construction: but, at a distance, its effect is highly picturesque.

The castle of Montalban is situated to the south-west of Toledo, at a distance of six Spanish leagues. It resembles, in size and importance, some of the largest English castles; and justifies thus far the tradition preserved here, of its having for a short period, served for a royal prison--Juan the Second being said to have been confined there by his exasperated favourite, Don Alvaro de Luna. This story is not, however, confirmed by historians, several of whom I have vainly consulted, for the purpose of discovering it. Ferreras mentions the castle, or rather the town, which lies at a distance of two leagues (eight miles) from it, as having belonged to the queen of Juan the Second; who, he states, was deprived of it, against her will, in favour of Don Alvaro, and another place given her in exchange. On the confiscation of the favourite's possessions, previous to his decapitation, it reverted to the crown; and there is no further notice taken of it in the history, until the Emperor Charles the Fifth, confers on its then proprietor the t.i.tle of Count. This personage was Don Alonzo Tellez Giron, third in descent from Juan Pacheco, Duke of Escalona, who had erected Montalban into a separate fief, in favour of one of his sons and his descendants, on the singular condition of the family name undergoing a change, on each successive descent. The alternate lords were to bear the names respectively of Giron and Pacheco. The first Count of Montalban married a daughter of D. Ladron de Guevara, proprietor, _a propos_ of castles, of that of Guevara, in the neighbourhood of Vitoria, constructed in an extremely singular form. The centre tower appears intended to imitate the castles of a chess-board.

It is situated on the southern declivity of the chain of mountains, a branch of the Pyrenees, which separates the province of Guipuscoa from those of Navarre and Alava.

On the opposite descent of the chain another fortress existed in remote times. Both were strongholds of robbers, whose descendants derived their family name, Ladron (robber) from their ancestors' profession. In a doc.u.ment signed by D. Garcia Ramirez, King of Navarre in 1135, D. Ladron de Guevara, governor of Alava, figures among the grandees of the kingdom; the descendants were afterwards called lords of Onate, and the castle is at present the property of the Count de Onate, a grandee of the first cla.s.s. From its occupying a point _strategique_ of considerable importance, commanding the plain of Alava, and the high road as it enters the valley of Borunda, it has been in recent times occupied by the Carlists, and fortified.

Montalban belongs at present to the Count of Fuensalida. It is completely ruinous, but the outer wall is almost entire; and one of two lofty piles of building, in the form of bastions, which flanked the entrance, is in sufficient preservation to allow the apartments to be recognised. Their floors were at a height of about eighty feet from the ground; and the ma.s.s of masonry which supported them, is pierced by an immense gothic arch reaching to the rooms. The opposite corresponding ma.s.s remains also with its arch; but the upper part which contained rooms, no longer exists. On this, the entrance side, the approach is almost level, and the defence consisted of a narrow and shallow moat; but the three other sides, the fortress being of a quadrangular form, look down into a deep ravine, through which a river, issuing from the left, pa.s.ses down two sides of the castle, and makes for the valley of the Tagus, which river is seen at a distance of five or six miles.

The precipice at the furthest side descends perpendicularly, and is composed of rocks in the wildest form. The river below leaps from rock to rock, and foams through a bed so tormented, that, although owing to its depth of at least five hundred feet from the foundations of the castle, it looks almost like a thread, it sends up a roar not less loud than that of the breakers under Shakspeare's Cliff. The valley, opening for its pa.s.sage, gives to the view, first, the Tagus, on the opposite bank of which lies the town of Montalban, dependant on the lords of the castle; beyond it an extensive plain, dotted with castles and towns, most of them on the road from Madrid to Talavera; and at the horizon the Sierra del Duque, coated with snow from about half its height upwards.

The extent of the view is about sixty miles.

The outer enceinte of the castle of Montalban encloses a s.p.a.ce of five or six acres in extent, in which no buildings remain, with the exception of the picturesque ruin of a small chapel in the centre. Like almost all other residences possessed of scenery sufficiently precipitous, this castle boasts its lover's leap. A projection of wall is pointed out, looking over the most perpendicular portion of the ravine, to which a tradition is attached, deprived by time of all tangible distinctness, if ever it possessed any. The t.i.tle given to the spot in this instance is "The Leap of the Moorish Girl," Despenadera de la Mora. The position will probably bear no comparison with the Leucadian promontory; nor is it equal to the Pena de los Enamorados, near Antequera, in Andalucia, immortal likewise in the annals of pa.s.sion, and of which the authentic story is preserved. Of those in our country I could name one--but I will not, though few know it better--nor is it the meanest of its tribe. But with these exceptions I know of none among the numerous plagiarisms of the famous lover's leap of antiquity that offers to despair in search of the picturesque more attractions than the Despenadera of Montalban.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CASTLE OF GUADAMUR.]

The best preserved castle of these environs, and the handsomest building, is that of Guadamur. It is not large, but it is impossible for a residence-fortress to be more complete, and more compact. It is composed of three enclosures, one within the other, and forms a quadrangle, with the addition of a lofty and ma.s.sive tower, projecting from one of the angles. The centre, or inner quadrangle, is about half the height of the tower, and has, at its three remaining angles, and at the centre of each front, an elegant circular turret. This portion of the edifice formed a commodious and handsome residence. It was divided into two stories, with vaulted ceilings,--the lower apartments being probably set apart for the offices of attendants, and places of confinement for prisoners: in the centre of the upper story was a diminutive open court, supported by the vaults of the ground-floor, and into which a series of elegantly proportioned rooms opened on all sides.

Although the greater part of the vaults and interior walls are fallen in, the rooms are all to be traced, and inscriptions in the old Gothic letter run round the walls of some of the apartments. A second enclosure rises to about two-thirds of the elevation of the inner quadrangle, and is provided with corresponding turrets; but the proportions of these are more s.p.a.cious, and their construction and ornament more ma.s.sive. Beyond this are the exterior defences rising out of the moat, and very little above the surrounding ground.

Viewed from without, nothing indicates that this edifice is a ruin. Over the entrance are the arms of the Counts of Fuensalida. It is supposed by many that this castle was erected by Garcilaso de la Vega, grandfather of the "Prince of Spanish poets," as the celebrated bard of Toledo is ent.i.tled. Others maintain its founder to have been Pedro Lopez de Ayala, first Count of Fuensalida. This latter story is the more probable one; since, besides its being confirmed by the armorial s.h.i.+eld above mentioned, it has been adopted by Haro in his n.o.biliario, a work drawn up with care and research, in which Garcilaso de la Vega is stated to have purchased some towns from the family of Ayala,--among others Cuerva, in the near neighbourhood, but not Guadamur.

The Ayalas were descended from the house of Haro, lords of Biscay.

Several of them had held high offices at the Court of Castile. The grandfather of the founder of the castle had been High Chancellor of Castile, and Great Chamberlain of Juan the First; and his father, the first lord of Fuensalida, was High Steward, and first Alcalde of Toledo.

He lost an eye at the siege of Antequera,--taken from the Moors by Ferdinand, afterwards King of Aragon, in the year 1410, and thus acquired the surname of the One-eyed. To him Juan II. first granted the faculty of converting his possessions into hereditary fiefs: "Because,"