Spain Part 3

VALENCIA includes the three provinces of _Castellon de la Plana_, _Valencia_, and _Alicante_, all three lying along the Mediterranean, and facing east and southwards from the mighty b.u.t.tress sierras which form the eastern wall of the great central plateau. It is in these provinces that we gradually pa.s.s from the Mediterranean climate to the "_Tierra caliente_," the warm lands and African products of south-eastern Spain.

Here too we meet with the finest Roman remains; and Moorish architecture begins to form a prominent feature in the characteristics of each city.

The speech is still a dialect of the Provencal, and the fiery Provencal nature is still apparent in the political history of the cities of Valencia. The hill-sides, bare of trees, are covered either with the esparto gra.s.s or with strongly aromatic herbs and shrubs. The rainfall gradually lessens; the streams all a.s.sume a torrential character, nearly dry in summer, swollen with rapid floods in winter; but they are greatly utilized for irrigation. By this means are formed the "_huertas_,"

gardens, and "_vegas_," plains, oases of beauty and fertility lying in the bosom of the barren hills, which serve as frames to pictures as valuable for their productiveness as they are enchanting in their beauty. The chief towns in the province of _Castellon_ are Castellon de la Plana (23,000), Vinaroz (9000), Villareal (8000), both near the Mediterranean; Segorbe on the Palancia, and numerous smaller towns in the interior. Benicarlo and Vinaroz, on the coast to the north of the province, are noted for their excellent red wines, quant.i.ties of which are exported to France for mixing with inferior French vintages, whence they find their way to England as Rousillon or Bordeaux. _Valencia_, a city of 143,000 inhabitants, and with a fine artificial harbour called the "_grao_," is the third city in population in Spain; but its commerce is little more than that of Santander and Bilbao, cities only one fourth of its size. The value of British imports, chiefly of coal, cod-fish, guano, and petroleum, in 1878, was 136,450_l_., and of exports, chiefly of fruits to Britain, 524,984_l_. The "_huerta_" of Valencia, with its ca.n.a.ls for irrigation, its "_acequias_," "_norias_," and other devices to draw the waters of the Guadalaviar, is one of the most successful examples in Spain of regulated application of water to agriculture. The quant.i.ty of water allotted to each property, the hour of opening or closing the sluices, are regulated according to laws and customs descended from Moorish times. So great is the drain upon the streams that the waters of some of the smaller rivers are entirely absorbed in the summer, and even of the Guadalaviar but little then reaches the sea.

It is from the _huerta_ of Valencia that the oranges come which form the delight of the population of Paris at the new year; hence are the raisins and the almonds and candied fruits equally dear to the British housekeeper. Rice is successfully cultivated on some of the lower grounds near the coast, and fruits and vegetables of every kind abound; but the Spaniards complain that they lack the richness and lusciousness of flavour belonging to those grown in other parts. "In Valencia," say they, "gra.s.s is like water, meat like gra.s.s, men like women, and the women worth nothing." The district was formerly noted for its silk-growing and stuffs of silk; also for the fine pottery known as Majolica ware from its carriers to the Italian ports, the sailors of Majorca and the Balearic Isles. It was also the earliest place of printing in Spain, and celebrated as a school of poetry and the arts; but nearly all this ancient fame is lost. To the south of Valencia is the large lake or lagoon of Albufera, the most extensive of the many lagoons along the Mediterranean coast, about nine miles long and twenty-seven miles round; it is full of fish, and frequented by wild fowls, and its varied inhabitants recall those of the Nile rather than those of any part of Europe. In the north of the province is Murviedro (7000), the ancient Saguntum, with its port almost entirely blocked up.

Considerable remains of the older city still exist, with inscriptions in idioms yet unknown, and are a treasure to archaeologists. The largest of the other cities are Alcira (13,000) on the Jucar, and Jativa (14,000).

The southern coasts of Valencia and the neighbouring districts of Alicante abound in sites of picturesque beauty, and the position of many of the ruined monasteries, built generally on the hills with a distant prospect of the sea, can hardly be excelled.

_Alicante_, whose _huertas_ and _vegas_ with their appliances for irrigation rival those of Valencia, has but 34,000 inhabitants.

Orihuela, in its rich wheat-growing district of never-failing harvest, has 21,000, and Alcoy 32,000. The smaller towns are numerous, and from the little ports in the north of the province, round Cape Nao, a good deal of coasting trade is done with the neighbouring Balearic Isles.

From Denia, Tabea, and Altea, nearly 100,000 tons of raisins are s.h.i.+pped every year, chiefly for Great Britain. At Elche (20,000) is the celebrated forest of palms of which we have before spoken, and the leaves of which are sent to Rome for the ceremonies of Easter week. The number of the trees is gradually declining, as the produce hardly repays the great amount of labour required. In the church at Elche religious plays or mysteries are occasionally performed, with an enthusiasm and solemnity both of actors and spectators equal to that of the Pa.s.sionspiel of Ober-Ammergau.

MURCIA contains the two provinces, _Murcia_ and _Albacete_. The first faces the Mediterranean; the second, besides comprising the Sierras of Alcazar and Segura, climbs those boundary mountains, and advances far into the plateau of La Mancha, and thus contains within its limits the sources of the Guadiana as well as those of the Mundo and the Segura.

_Murcia_, in its higher parts, is very thinly peopled, and in spite of the fertile plains in the lower course of the Segura and the Sangonera, and the rich mining district round Cartagena, has only two-thirds as many inhabitants to the square mile as Valencia. Murcia is perhaps the driest province of Spain, and the one in which the want of water is the most generally felt, yet it is in this province that the floods are the most pernicious and destructive. Year by year the irrigation works become less effective. Ancient dams broken down by the floods are not restored. Since 1856, however, a new source of wealth has been opened to this province by the export of the esparto gra.s.s, which grows on all the low hills, and which, in addition to its use in the country for numerous native fabrics, is now largely exported for paper-making. The export began only in 1856. In 1873 it had reached 67,000 tons for England alone; in 1875 the money value of the whole export was 400,000_l._, but it declined to 30,000_l._ in 1877, and 284,000_l._ in 1878, since which date it has gradually lessened. Murcia, the chief city, is an irrigated plain on the Segura, has a population of 91,000. It is one of the chief seats of silk cultivation in Spain. Lorca (52,000), on the Sangonera, offers another example of the extreme fertility that can be obtained by irrigation in a suitable climate. Cartagena (75,000), with its grand harbour and docks, is one of the three naval a.r.s.enals in Spain; but has greatly fallen from its ancient wealth and importance. Like Barcelona and Valencia it has distinguished itself by its extreme democratic and cantonalist opinions, and has revolted against the republic equally as against the monarchy. In its neighbourhood are some of the richest lead and silver mines in Spain, and which have been worked since Carthaginian and Roman times. The coal imported from England for smelting purposes amounts to 80,000 tons yearly. The tonnage of British vessels employed was over 200,000 in 1877. Along the coast are various lagoons and salt-lakes (salinas), where salt is made on a considerable scale; it is exported chiefly to the Baltic. The Barilla plant, for making soda, is also cultivated along the coast; and, of the plants in the salinas, it is computed that at least one-sixth of the species are African.

_Albacete_ (16,000), situated at the junction both of road and railway from Murcia and Valencia to Madrid, is chiefly celebrated for its trade in common cutlery. It is here that the large stabbing knives (navajas) are made, and for the use of which both Valencians and Murcians have an unenviable notoriety. On the plateau of this province (Albacete) are found (Salinas) salt-lakes formed by evaporation, the only examples of this kind in Western Europe. The only other town of any importance in the province is Almanza (9000), on the edge of the plateau before making the descent into Valencia. The numerous names compounded of "pozo,"

well, and "fuente," fountain, in this province, attest its arid character, where fresh water is scarce enough to make its presence a distinguis.h.i.+ng mark to any spot.

ANDALUSIA embraces the whole of southern Spain from Murcia to the frontier of Portugal. Its seaboard includes both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. In Cabo de Gata, 210' W., it has the extreme south-easterly point of Spain; and in Cabo de Tarifa, 362' N., the extreme southerly point, not only of Spain, but of Europe. One chain of its mountains, the Sierra de Nevada, contains the highest summits of the peninsula; and its river, the Guadalquiver, from Seville to the ocean is the only stream of real service for navigation in the whole of Spain.

Its wines and olives, its grapes and oranges, and fruits of all kinds, are the finest, its horses and its cattle are the best, its bulls are the fiercest, of all Spain. The sites of its cities rival in their entrancing beauty those of any other European land; while, wanting though they may be in deeper qualities, its sons and daughters yield not in wit or attractive grace or beauty to those of any other race. The Moor has left a deeper mark here than elsewhere, even as he kept his favourite realm of Granada for centuries after he had lost the rest of Spain. And when the sun of Moorish glory set, it was from Andalusia that the vision of the New World rose upon astonished Europe. The year of the conquest of Granada (1492) was also that of the discovery of America.

All things take an air of unwonted beauty and of picturesque grace in this land of sun and light; even the gipsy race, avoided and abhorred in other countries of Europe, at Granada, as at Moscow, becomes one of the attractions of the tourist. The province is not entirely of one type. It unites many kinds of beauty; even in Andalusia are "_despoblados_" and "_destierros_," dispeopled and deserted wastes, under Christian hands, but once fertile and inhabited under Moorish rule. Savage wildness and barrenness reign in its lofty mountain chains as much as softer beauty does in the "_huertas_" and "_vegas_." But from the minerals the one district is equally valuable as the other. The province possesses the richest mines, as well as the richest fruits and wines, of the whole of Spain. ANDALUSIA, is divided into the provinces of _Almeria_, _Granada_, _Malaga_, on the Mediterranean; _Cadiz_, _Seville_, _Huelva_, on the Atlantic coast; and _Cordova_ and _Jaen_ inland, along the upper waters of the Guadalquiver.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL VIEW OF GRANADA, WITH THE ALHAMBRA.

_Page 110._]

In _Almeria_ (40,000) the flat-roofed houses are built round a central court, the "_patio_," wherein is often a fountain, and palm and vine for shade; while oranges, myrtles, pa.s.sion-flowers, and other gay or odoriferous shrubs or flowers, add their colour and perfume. The type and the manners of the inhabitants tell us that we are already in the land of the Moors. Almeria has declined from what it was when one of the chief ports of transit between the Moors of Africa and their brethren of south-eastern Spain; but from the growing importance of the Spanish colony in Oran, its trade is now fast reviving. The exports are lead and silver ore from the mines of the neighbourhood, fruits of all kinds, and a little wine. The tonnage of British s.h.i.+pping employed at Almeria was, in 1875, 117,123 tons; 1876, 85,840 tons; 1877, 89,988 tons. The chief exports in 1877 were about 10,000 tons of esparto gra.s.s, 280,000 barrels of grapes, 10,000 tons of minerals, and nearly 10,000 of calamine. The sugar-cane is also grown here. The whole province is mountainous, covered with the spurs and offshoots of the mighty Sierra Nevada, the Sierras de Gador, de Filabres, de Cabrera, de Aljamilla, all which have their terminations in headlands which run into the Mediterranean. The basins of the rivers of the region are often cleft by these smaller ranges, and thus they receive their waters from both the northern and southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The only other towns of importance are Cuevas de Vera (20,000), and Velez-Rubio (13,000), in the north of the province on the road between Murcia and Granada, where some lead-mines have been lately opened. The ports, except Almeria, are all small; Dalias, on the confines of Granada, is noted for the magnificent grapes and raisins s.h.i.+pped there.

_Granada_ (76,000) is one of the most celebrated spots of Europe, a city of enchantment and of romance. It is one of the few places of renown, the sight of which does not disappoint the traveller. The natural advantages of its position would be sufficient to mark it as a city of unusual beauty, were there no masterpieces of art and of architecture, or storied memories, connected with it. It is situated in an upland valley, at an elevation of 2200 feet above the sea level--sufficiently high in that climate to prevent the summer's heat from being oppressively exhausting, and not too high to hinder the choicest semi-tropical fruits and flowers from growing in the open air--surrounded, yet not too closely, by mountain ranges, of which those to the east are the very highest in Spain--Mulhacen (11,700), Alcazaba (11,600), and Veleta (11,400). The ice and snow on their summits not only cool the hot winds which blow over them from Africa, but provide the means of making the iced water which is the Spaniard's greatest luxury. Its climate is second in its equable range only to that of its coast towns, Motril and Malaga. It is watered by the united streams of the Darro and the Jenil, which meet within the city, both hurrying from their mountain home to join the Guadalquiver between Cordova and Seville; and with their fertilizing waters dispersed in irrigation they make the "Vega," or plain, of Granada one of the noted gardens of the world. Granada is worth all the praise that has been sung or written of it. On an isolated hill to the east, cut off from the town and from the Generalife by the ravine through which the Darro flows, and enclosed with a wall flanked by twelve towers, stands the celebrated group of buildings known by the name of the Alhambra, perhaps the fairest palace and fortress at once ever inhabited by a Moslem monarch. Almost unrivalled in the beauty of its site, it outstrips all rivals in the beauty of its Arab architecture. The mosque of Cordova is grander, and the tombs of the Caliphs at Cairo may be in a purer style, but they lack the variety and richness of these diverse buildings. The Alhambra hill is to Arabic what the Acropolis of Athens was to h.e.l.lenic art; only to the attractions of the plastic arts were added in the case of the Alhambra the triumphs of the gardener's skill. Shrubs and flowers delighted the eyes with colour, or gratified the sense of smell with sweetest odours, while water, skilfully conducted from the neighbouring hills, purled among the beds, or leaped in fountains, or filled the baths with purest streams. Thus every sense and taste was gratified, and Granada was indeed an earthly paradise to the Moor. Even in its decay, and seen in fragments only, it is one of the world's wonders, a treasure and delight to pilgrims of art from every land. But we must not waste our s.p.a.ce in detailing the beauties of Granada; its trade, sadly diminished from what it was formerly, is chiefly in fruits and silk and leather stuffs. Next to Granada, the chief city in the province is Loja (15,000), near the Jenil, and the little port of Motril (13,500), sheltered under the highest summits of the Sierra Nevada, is said to possess the most equable climate of the Spanish Mediterranean ports. It is here, in the extensive alluvial plain stretching from Motril to the sea, that the sugar-cane is most extensively cultivated, producing in 1877, 113,636 tons of cane. Far inland, and separated from Motril by the mountain ma.s.s, is Baza (13,500). The mineral riches of the Sierra Nevada have never been adequately explored; from specimens used in the construction of Granada, it must possess marbles of rare beauty; metals, too, abound, but few of its mines are worked. In picturesque beauty, when seen near at hand, these mountains are not nearly equal to the Pyrenees and to many minor chains; with rounded summits, they are bare and denuded of wood, and are entirely without the glacier forms, and the lakes and rus.h.i.+ng streams, which delight us in the Alps.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALHAMBRA TOWER BY MOONLIGHT.]

_Malaga._--The greater part of this province lies in an amphitheatre of mountains, stretching from the Sierra de Almijarras on the east to those of De la Nieve and of Ronda to the west. It faces the full southern sun, but is watered and irrigated by torrential streams from the mountains, at times almost dry, at others, as in December, 1880, rus.h.i.+ng down in most destructive floods. The city, with over 110,000 inhabitants, boasts not only the finest climate in Spain, on which account it is greatly frequented by invalids in the winter, but its commerce is second in value to that of Barcelona. Its wealth and exports are almost wholly agricultural, consisting of luscious wines--which, however, have a greater reputation on the continent than in England--oil, fruits, and especially dried raisins; oranges, olives, figs, sugar, and sweet potatoes. Bananas, and all other tropical and semi-tropical products of Spain are here found in perfection. Upwards of 2,000,000 boxes of raisins, 3,000,000 gallons of oil, and 1,100,100 gallons of wine, besides other fruits, esparto gra.s.s, and minerals (chiefly lead), are annually exported. The tonnage of British vessels in 1878 was about 158,000 tons. It has been a city and port from great antiquity; but though a favourite residence of the Moors, they have left fewer remains here than at Granada, Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and many a place of lesser note. Antequerra (25,000), on the Guadaljorce, on the northern slope of the sierras, guards the defile leading to Malaga, and was formerly of great military importance. The Cueva del Menjal, in the neighbourhood, is a fine dolmen. Ronda (20,000), the chief town of the sierra of the same name, is remarkable for its position on both sides of an enormous fissure (el Tajo) from 300 to 600 feet deep, and which is spanned by a magnificent bridge, constructed by the architect Archidone, in 1761. Velez Malaga (24,000) is a small sheltered port to the east of Malaga, with a trade in fruits and wines.

_Cadiz_, the most southerly province of Spain, includes the capes of Trafalgar and Tarifa, and the Punta de Europa, or the English Rock of Gibraltar. This province is also the princ.i.p.al seat of the great sherry trade. The town (65,000) and port have greatly fallen from their former importance, when Spain possessed nearly all the Americas south of California, and but for the Transatlantic steamers to Cuba and the West Indies, and to the Philippine Islands in the East Indies, would probably decline still more. The application of steam, allowing ocean vessels to ascend the Guadalquiver rapidly to Seville, has arrested there a great deal of the produce which formerly came to Cadiz, but which is now s.h.i.+pped at the former town. The total tonnage of the port is now about 800,000; the imports over 2,000,000_l._, of which about one-sixth is British; but of the exports, which are about the same in value, fully two-thirds go to Great Britain. Cadiz itself is undoubtedly one of the oldest ports of Western Europe, and is situated on a narrow promontory, formed into an island by the channel of San Pedro. Unlike most of the southern cities of Spain, its houses are of great height and of several stories, the contracted s.p.a.ce of its site having occasioned this architectural modification. The city is excellently supplied with fish; the market is noted both for the quant.i.ty and the variety of its supply, which amounts to nearly 900 tons annually. Round the Bay of Cadiz are situated towns and harbours of considerable size, whose united commerce is almost equal to that of Cadiz itself. Of these, Puerto de St. Maria (22,000), on the northern side of the bay, is the great harbour for the s.h.i.+pment of sherry wines. Immense quant.i.ties of salt are made, chiefly for exportation, in the Salinas between Puerto Real and San Fernando (26,000), and Chiclana (20,000), on the San Pedro ca.n.a.l, which cuts off the Isle of Leon from the mainland. The export of wine from the whole Bay was, in

Gallons. b.u.t.ts.

1858 3,600,000, or 33,028 1862 5,600,000, " 51,376 1871 8,300,000, " 77,064 1876 " 61,609 1877 " 68,246

Xeres de la Frontera (64,000), situated about thirty miles from Cadiz, surrounded by vineyards, is a city of Bodegas, or wine-cellars, the princ.i.p.al of which, as well as of the vineyards, are in the hands of foreigners. It is one of the busiest of Spanish commercial towns, and, like Barcelona, is on that account less peculiarly Spanish than many others. The exportation of sherry wines from the district, and those s.h.i.+pped at Port St. Mary, amounted, in 1873, to 98,924 b.u.t.ts; 1874, 65,365 b.u.t.ts; from Jerez alone, in 1875, 43,727 b.u.t.ts; 1876, 42,272 b.u.t.ts; 1877, 41,660 b.u.t.ts; 87 per cent, of which goes to Great Britain and her colonies. The decrease in later years is probably caused by the greater amount of lighter French wines now consumed in England. San Lucar de Barrameda (22,000), at the mouth of the Guadalquiver, is noted for its winter-gardens, which are said to date from Moorish times, and which supply Cadiz and Seville with their earliest fruits and vegetables. From its vineyards, too, comes the stomachic Manzanilla sherry, flavoured with the wild camomile, which grows abundantly in its vineyards. Arcos (12,000), on the Guadalete, is the only other Spanish town of importance in the province; but to the south lies the isolated rock and fortress of Gibraltar (25,000), captured by the Earl of Peterborough in 1704. Though held only as an English garrison (5000), and made almost impregnable as a fortress, it is yet of considerable commerce from its position as a port of call for vessels pa.s.sing the Straits of Gibraltar, and also from its contraband trade with Spain, which is a source of constant irritation between the two nations. In natural history, it is remarkable for its apes (_macacus inuus_), as the only spot in Europe where any species of monkey lives, and it is doubtful whether even these would survive without the aid of occasional importations from Morocco.

_Seville_ is the typical province of Andalusia, and its city of 133,000 ranks fourth in population of the cities of Spain. The Moors have left deeper outward traces at Granada, but here they have fused more thoroughly with the population, and have given it the Oriental grace and culture which is lacking in the former place; their wit belongs to themselves. Seville is peculiarly the home of Spanish art; the greatest of her painters, Murillo and Velasquez, were born there, and Zurbaran painted his best pieces to adorn her walls. Her writers are scarcely less noted. The most celebrated novelist of modern Spain, Cecilia Bohl de Faber (Fernan Caballero), had her home there. There Amador de los Rios composed his chief works. The Becquers--both the painter and the novelist--were born there. It is a city of predilection for all of artistic tastes. The Giralda, a tower of Moorish architecture, rivals, if it does not surpa.s.s, in its exquisite proportions the _campanille_ of Italian art. The Alcazar is a home of beauty. The _patios_, or inner courts, of many of the houses have remains of Moorish decoration. The Cathedral shows that Christian lags not far behind Moslem architecture.

But Seville, on the Guadalquiver, is not a mere city of pleasure. Like Paris, its gay exterior contains a great deal of real work and commerce within. Since the invention of steam, allowing sea-going vessels to breast with ease the current of the Guadalquiver, it has drawn to itself a great deal of the traffic which formerly pa.s.sed through the harbours of the Bay of Cadiz. The tonnage of its s.h.i.+pping amounts to about 120,000 tons, and the value of its imports to over 2,000,000_l_., and of its exports to 1,750,000_l_., one-half of which belongs to Great Britain. Among its manufactories, one of porcelain, carried on by a British company, but employing Spanish methods, is celebrated; and its tobacco manufactory, with its 1000 women workers, is the largest government establishment of the kind in Spain. The city long enjoyed almost a monopoly of West Indian and of Manilla productions; the wealth brought by the galleons was deposited here, and here are still preserved the "Archivos de las Indias." It possesses both a university and a mint.

The lower part of the Guadalquiver runs through marshy lands, which in places present almost impenetrable jungles. In these are bred the bulls which supply the bull-fights with their victims, and which make Seville the great school of _tauromachia_ in Spain. The finest Andalusian horses are also produced in this province, and the wines, though not equal to those of the neighbouring provinces of Cadiz and Cordova, are still highly esteemed. Besides Seville, the chief towns are Ecija (24,000) on the Jenil, a place of large trade; Carmona (18,000); Ossuna (16,000).

Utrera, Lebriga, and Marchena would be considerable towns in other provinces, but we can only indicate them here. From the absence of mountains Seville has not the mineral wealth of some other provinces, but coal is worked at Villanueva del Rio, and the copper-mines at Arnalcollar yield 20,000 tons of ore; other outlying deposits of the Huelva beds are found in this province, and a great part of the lead from the Linares mines is s.h.i.+pped here.

_Huelva_, the last maritime province of Spain, conterminous with Portugal on the west and with Seville on the east, with its capital of 10,000, is one of the richest mining districts in Europe. Worked in prehistoric times, and in the mythical dawn of history, by Iberians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans, the mines of Tharsis and of the Rio Tinto were strangely neglected by the Spaniards until purchased by an Anglo-German company in 1873 for 3,850,000_l_., but with the certainty of a rich return. There are now over 7000 men employed by this company, and 906,600 tons of copper ore were extracted in 1879 from the south lode only; about 10,000 tons of hemat.i.te iron were also sold.

The mines contain sulphur, copper, iron, and silver. In fact, the mountains round the source of the Tinto seem to be almost one ma.s.s of mineral ore. From the working of these mines the development of the riches of this province has been most rapid of late years, and the tonnage of s.h.i.+pping from the port of Huelva will probably soon rival, if not surpa.s.s, that of Cadiz: in 1873 the foreign s.h.i.+pping was 180,000 tons; this had ascended to over 300,000 tons in 1877. The imports were valued in 1873 at 168,000_l_., of which 112,000_l_. were British; and in 1877 to over 300,000, of which not quite one-half was British. The exports are of far greater importance, ranging from 750,000_l_. in 1873, of which 667,000_l_. were British, to 1,236,243_l_. in 1877, of which 1,132,782_l_. went to Great Britain. Except in minerals, the province is not rich; but a trade which will probably increase, has lately sprung up in wines, fruits, and cork. The frontier stream the Guadiana is of little use to Spain, and the little port of Palos, whence Columbus set out to give a new world to Spain, is now completely silted up.

_Cordova._--The interior provinces of Andalusia are _Cordova_ and _Jaen_, both on the Guadalquiver, the latter embracing the sources and upper part of the course, the former the central portion before it enters the province of Seville. The northern part of the province of Cordova is covered by parallel ranges of low mountains running east and west--the Sierras de Cordova and de Pedroches within the province, and the Sierras de Almaden and Morena, which form the boundary of Castile.

_Cordova_, the capital, contains now but 49,000 inhabitants in place of the 1,000,000 who dwelt there when it was the seat of the western khalifat. Its mosque, almost the sole remnant of its former splendour, with its 1200 columns, is to Islam what the temple of Karnac at Thebes, and that of Karnac in Brittany, with their 100 pillars, are to the religions of Egypt and of prehistoric Europe. It is perhaps the grandest building for wors.h.i.+p ever raised by Moslem hands; its materials were pillaged without scruple from shrines of older civilizations, but were wrought into new and fairer forms of beauty by the magic of Arabian art.

As a Christian city, Cordova is of only second rank. It is chiefly noted for its leather work, and for its commerce in wines and fruits. It is to Cordova that the Amontillada sherry--the most prized of Spanish wines--comes, from the vineyards round Montilla (15,000). The only other town of importance in the province is Lucena (16,000), to the south.

_Jaen_, like Huelva, at the opposite extremity of Andalusia, is a mining province, and like those of Huelva its mines are chiefly in the hands of Englishmen and of foreigners. Linares (36,000), north of the Guadalquiver, is the centre of the mining district, and is far the most populous town in the province. Nearly 11,000 men, women, and boys were employed in the lead-mines in 1877, and the ore raised amounted to 70,000 tons. It has been calculated that the production of the world is about 300,000 tons of lead, of which Spain furnishes 100,000 tons and the United Kingdom 100,000 tons. The capital, Jaen, south of the great river, has only 24,000 inhabitants; Ubeda and Baza, close together, a little south of Jaen, have each 15,000. Andujar (11,000), with its old bridge over the Guadalquiver, is noted for its porous pottery, the cooling water-jars used throughout the whole of Southern Spain. In the north of this province is the celebrated Pa.s.s of Despena-perros, through the Sierra Morena, one of the wildest gorges through which the traveller pa.s.ses in any part of Europe; a few miles to the south of it is Las Navas de Tolosa, the field of the battle in 1212 which first proved how fast the power of the Moors was waning in Southern Spain.

ESTREMADURA, conterminous on the west with Portugal and on the south with Huelva, is the wildest and least peopled of all the provinces of Spain, and has been almost sufficiently described in a former chapter.

It is divided into the two modern provinces of _Badajoz_ and _Caceres_, through which run respectively the two rivers, the Guadiana and the Tagus. Desolate as it is now, the numerous Roman remains at Merida (6000) and Trajan's mighty bridge at Alcantara tell what it was in Roman times; but in Moorish days it suffered more from war than any other province, and the curse, the "_mesta_," the only means the Christian conquerors had of utilizing their vast and thinly-peopled properties, has ever since rested upon it. Besides its flocks and herds its chief wealth consists in acorns and bark for tanning, and cork for other purposes. The rivers run in deep gorges, almost canons, and are useless for either navigation or for irrigation. Badajoz (22,000), on the Guadiana, one of the frontier fortresses of Spain towards Portugal, is by far the largest city. Higher up the river are Merida and Medellin, but Don Benito (15,000) is of greater commercial importance than either.

_Caceres_, a province still more thinly peopled than Badajoz, having only fifteen inhabitants instead of nineteen to the square kilometre, has 12,000 for its chief town; Plasencia, on the Xerte, an affluent of the Alagon, has only half that number. In the north-east of this province, on the southern spurs of the lofty Sierra de Gredos, stands the monastery San Juste, to which the Emperor Charles V. retired on his resignation of his many crowns. The shepherds of Estremadura, notwithstanding the scanty population, gave numbers of emigrants to the New World; Cortez and Pizarro were swineherds, the one of Medellin, the other of Truxillo. The town of Alcantara gives its name to one of the three great military orders of Spain.

NEW CASTILE and LA MANCHA comprise the five modern provinces of _Ciudad Real_, _Toledo_, _Madrid_, _Cuenca_, and _Guadalajara_, which all take their names from their chief towns. The province of _Ciudad Real_, which lies between the Sierra de Morena and the mountains of Toledo, is traversed by the Guadiana. It is the most thinly populated of all the provinces of Spain, having only thirteen inhabitants to the square kilometre; but it is by no means the least wealthy. It contains within it the quicksilver-mines of Almaden (9000), the richest deposit in the world before the late discoveries in California. They were a source of revenue to the Spanish crown for centuries, with an annual rent of over a quarter of a million. They were however mortgaged by the Government for thirty years in order to raise a loan of 2,318,000_l._ at five per cent., to be extinguished in 1900. The average annual extract is estimated at 12,000 tons of mercury. The vineyards round Valdepenas (11,000) supply the red wine which is the favourite beverage of the Spaniards throughout the centre and the south, and the home consumption of which is far beyond that of the sherries. Almagro (14,000) is known for its lace manufacture; but Ciudad-Real, the capital (12,000), is fallen from its ancient importance. Damiel (13,000) and Manzanares (9000) are the only other towns that need mention.

_Toledo_ (21,000), watered by the Tagus, was for centuries the most important city of Spain. It is here that the great councils which really regulated the civil as well as the ecclesiastical administration of Spain, from the fourth to the eighth centuries were held. Here too was one of the centres of Arabic civilization: the waterworks, clocks, and observatory of Toledo were among the wonders of the world from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, and even after its capture by the Christians, in 1085, the conqueror seemed for a while to have fallen under the same spell. The court of Alfonso X., the Wise, was a semi-Moorish court, and his tolerance excited the indignant wonder of travellers from other parts of Europe. Moorish and Christian architecture is still most strangely blended in many of its buildings, and Moorish architects were long employed to keep in repair not only the structures which their ancestors had raised, but even the Christian churches. The skill of its ironworkers and the temper of its sword-blades were renowned throughout Europe. The superiority of its steel was said to be due to some peculiar virtue of the water of the Tagus used in tempering; but the best of the iron was taken from the mines of Mondragon, in Guipuzcoa. The manufactory has greatly fallen from its ancient splendour, but some good weapons are still made, though they cannot compete in price with British or foreign goods. The insurrection of its inhabitants under the "Comuneros" in 1520, in defence of the ancient const.i.tutional liberties of Castille probably determined the selection of the more obsequious town of Madrid as the capital of Spain by the Emperor Charles V. Toledo, with its narrow streets and semi-Moorish houses, is emphatically the city of Old Spain; the purest Spanish is said still to be spoken there, and for native poets and romancers it seems to have an attraction beyond that of any of the cities of Andalusia. The only other town of importance in the province is Talavera, with its fifteenth-century bridge of nearly a quarter of a mile in length.

_Madrid._--The province of Madrid lies between the Sierra de Guadarrama on the north and the Tagus on the south. The city, which now contains almost 400,000 inhabitants, was a third or fourth-rate town until Charles V., and after him Philip II., chose it for the capital of Spain, in place of either Toledo or Valladolid. Its recommendations seem to have been its central position, and the absence of any strong traditions of ancient const.i.tutional liberties, such as might hamper the sovereign in developing his new despotism. A city which owed its creation entirely to the sovereign, and its riches to to the presence of his court, would be certain to be obedient to its rulers. If Charles V. and Philip II. did not make it the centre of a free and const.i.tutional government, they at least enriched it with all the treasures of art which the rulers of the greater part of Europe could collect from the various parts of their vast dominions. It is at the museum of Madrid, which owes its existence to Ferdinand VII., that not only Spanish, but also many of the Flemish and some of the Italian painters can be best studied; and by a happy chance the royal palace, built in the eighteenth century, is one of the least faulty and most impressive structures of that age. At the west end of the city, on the banks of the Manzanares, are the royal gardens; at the opposite extremity the promenades of the Prado and the gardens of the Buen Retiro. These artificial parks and walks in some way compensate for the dreary and almost desert aspect of the country round Madrid; for there are "_despoblados_" and "_destierros_" almost within sight of the greatest city of Spain. It is now approached by rail from all sides, and the convergence of these iron roads and of the highways will probably secure its future position as the capital of the nation; but until the present century, contrary to that of most European capitals, the approach to Madrid seemed to be an approach from civilization to barbarism. As the traveller neared the capital, whether from the north or from the east and south, the inns grew worse, the roads more impa.s.sable, and the difficulty of procuring food greater in the neighbourhood of the capital than elsewhere; the contrast of magnificence and meanness, of dirt and discomfort and formal etiquette in the city itself, until the time of Charles III., is the theme of every visitor. Of late its character has much changed; the increase of its population has not been caused by the natural growth of its inhabitants, but by the migration thither of Catalans, Gallegos, Asturians, Basques, and especially of Andalusians; and thus the Puerta del Sol, the heart of Madrid, has become, as it were, the heart of Spain, and almost every political and social movement which stirs the nation has its origin there. Though not quite to the extent with which Paris absorbs France, still Madrid collects to itself the greater part of the intellectual and literary life of the nation. It is Madrid that supplies most of the daily journals, the scientific periodicals, reviews, and literature to the rest of Spain. Here is the seat of the learned academies and of the chief literary, educational, and scientific inst.i.tutions. The universities, the national and the free, the Ateneo, the great public libraries of Madrid, are the best in Spain. It is here that Cortes meets, here that the elections are arranged, all the lines of Spanish administration converge hither, and it is here that the intrigues for place or power are princ.i.p.ally conducted, and unhappily we must add it is thus that Madrid is also the focus and example of administrative corruption for the rest of Spain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOUNTAIN OF THE FOUR SEASONS, MADRID.

_Page 130._]

Besides Madrid, the province contains two other royal residencies, Aranjuez to the south, at the junction of the Tagus with the Jarama, and the Escorial to the north, at the foot of the Guadarrama. The chief attractions of the former consist in its abundant supply of water, in its fountains and running streams, and in the avenues and groves of lofty trees, whose roots are fed by these waters. The Escorial is of an entirely opposite character. This vast and extraordinary structure was raised by Philip II., in pursuance of a vow made at the battle of St.

Quentin, August 10 (St. Lawrence's Day), 1557; the ground-plan is that of a mighty gridiron, to recall that on which the martyr suffered. The central piece of architecture is a chapel, impressive from its grand simplicity; and however faulty the general design of the vast edifice, several details, and especially the frescoes of the ceilings and some of the paintings, are of great beauty. The whole fabric, in its severe and sombre majesty, harmonizes well with the bare and wind-swept granite mountains near which it is placed. Like most of the other treasure-houses of Spain, it suffered severely from pillage during the French invasion. _Acala de Henares_ (8000) was celebrated in the sixteenth century as a university under the patronage of the Cardinal Ximenes, and here the celebrated Complutensian Polyglot Bible was printed. It was also the birthplace of Cervantes. The ca.n.a.l of Henares is described above, pp. 18, 19.

_Cuenca_, one of the most thinly populated as well as one of the most mountainous provinces of Spain, stretches on two sides of the chief watershed, and the waters of the streams which rise in this province from different slopes of the Cerro de San Felipe flow to the Atlantic and to the Mediterranean. Cuenca (7000), the capital, is still untouched by railway routes, and slumbers on its lofty cliff, and emerged into temporary notoriety by its capture and sack by Alphonso, the brother of Don Carlos, in 1874.

_Guadalajara_ (6500), on the Henares, though on the line of railway between Saragossa and Madrid, is scarcely more lively than Cuenca, but it contains the school for military engineers, the most distinguished corps in the Spanish army, and which has never stained its character by political intrigue. The province supports a slightly higher population than that of Cuenca.

OLD CASTILE was with Leon for several centuries the chief of the rising kingdoms of Spain, and the one into which all the rest gradually merged.

It now contains five provinces, _Avila_, _Segovia_, _Soria_, _Logrono_, and _Burgos_. Avila (7000), still surrounded by its mediaeval walls in excellent preservation, is one of the most picturesque cities in Spain, at an alt.i.tude of nearly 3500 feet above the sea-level. The province is remarkable as the one in which the rudely-sculptured stone monuments of boars and bulls, the "Toros de Guisando," are chiefly found. They are the art remains of a population whose name, age, and ethnic affinities are totally unknown. The southern half of this province is traversed by the lofty Sierra de Gredos, and hiding in its secluded valleys are some of the most primitive peoples of Spain. There are no other large towns in the province.

_Segovia_ (7000), another of the picturesque cities of Spain, contains fine specimens of Roman, Moorish, and Christian mediaeval architecture in its wondrous aqueduct, cathedral, the Alcazar, and castle. It was formerly a place of great commercial as well as of political importance, and was the centre of a trade in woollen goods which employed 34,000 workmen, and made the cloth of Segovia celebrated throughout Europe.

This commerce has now utterly departed, both from it and from the other cities, such as Avila, Medina del Campo, which shared its reputation. It is now visited by the lover of the picturesque, whose taste will be here abundantly gratified. Not far from Segovia, under the Penalarra (7800 feet), on the northern slope of the Guadarrama range, are La Granja and San Ildefonso. At a height of 4000 feet above the level of the sea, this is the most agreeable of all the inland royal residences of Spain. Built in French taste by Philip V., it is redeemed from ba.n.a.lity by its pleasant surroundings. But retired and peaceful as it looks, La Granja has been the scene of some of the most important political events in the modern history of Spain. The celebrated pa.s.ses of Somosierra (4700 feet), and that of the Col de Guadarrama (5000), lead from this province to Madrid; the railway, too, attains at La Canada a height of 4457 feet above the level of the sea.

_Soria_, on the north-eastern edge of the great plateau, is one of the poorest provinces of Spain. Leaning on the Sierra de Moncayo, the whole of the northern and central part of the province slopes gradually to the west, and is watered by the Douro, which takes its rise in the Sierra de Moncayo. The southern angle of the province contains also the sources of the Jalon, which, flowing through a break in the Idubeda range, finds its way to the Ebro, and thence to the Mediterranean, the upper courses of the two rivers completely overlapping. In spite of these two river-valleys the province is very unproductive. Soria, near the site of the Keltiberean Numantia, which held out for twenty-nine years against the Romans, contains but 6000 inhabitants. Osma, on the Douro, has barely 1000, and Agreda (4000) is celebrated only for the visions of a nun in the sixteenth century.

The province of _Burgos_ overlaps the plateau, and in its northern and southern extremities embraces the valleys both of the Ebro and the Douro, with their respective towns, Miranda del Ebro and Aranda del Douro. The basins of these two rivers are separated by the Oca or Idubeda mountains, which cross the centre of the province. The difference of the elevation of the two valleys may be seen in the fact that while Miranda del Ebro is 1600 feet above the sea-level, Burgos is more than 2800. Burgos (29,000) and Aranda del Douro were formerly towns of considerable commerce, and the former had at one time a claim to be considered the chief city of Northern Spain. It has now greatly fallen, but will always be visited for the n.o.ble remains of Gothic architecture in the city and its suburbs. Miranda del Ebro (3000), when the river formed the customs line for all commerce pa.s.sing from the Basque Provinces into Spain, was of great consequence, and is now the point of junction for the northern lines of railway from Bilbao and from Irun. In this province, too, is the pa.s.s of Pancorbo, through which both road and railway wind; for savage wildness it is inferior only to that of the above-mentioned Despena-perros in the Sierra Morena.

The whole province of _Logrono_ lies in the southern half of the valley of the Ebro, and leans against the mountains which form the supports of the great plateau. The Ebro forms its northern boundary, and its chief towns, Logrono (12,000) and Calahorra (7000), are both on the river.

Here the traveller from the north first sees the Noria or Moorish water-wheel at work. The province is noted chiefly for its strong, rough wines, and for its agricultural products. Navarete is known in English history as the spot where the Black Prince and Bertrand du Guesclin fought out their mightiest duel, the one as the partisan of Pedro the Cruel, and the other of Henry of Trastamare.

The kingdom of LEON is divided into five provinces, _Salamanca_, _Valladolid_, _Zamora_, _Palencia_, _Leon_. _Salamanca_ lies along the Portuguese frontier, which is here formed by the Rivers Douro and Agueda. The city (15,000) was famous throughout the early part of the Middle Ages for its university and for its Arabic and Hebrew learning.

It thus became in popular estimation the home of magic and of the black arts, and as such its name is found in the folk-lore tales of many parts of Europe; its students, poor, riotous, and witty, made it the birthplace of the peculiar, picaresque romance literature of Spain, from Lazarillo de Tormes to Gil Blas. Like all the Spanish provincial universities, it is but the shadow of its former self, nor does the city preserve any of the older features which still make Toledo a delight to the tourist. Its old bridge over the Tormes is said to date from Roman times. Bejar (8000) does a fair trade as a manufactory of cloth. Ciudad Rodrigo (5000) is one of the strongest fortresses of Spain, and guards, with Badajoz, the frontier against Portugal. The provinces of Salamanca and Zamora contain some of the most peculiar and picturesque peasantry yet remaining in Spain; even around Salamanca the festal dresses of the Charros and Charras are rich with gold and silver ornaments of Moorish type. In the valley of the Batuecas, amid the Sierra de Gata, the Hurdes, and to the west of Zamora, the Sayagos, and again, the Maragatos, to the north-west of the province, in the mountains of Leon, are all remnants of ancient races, preserving habits and tribal customs and laws, differing from their neighbours, and well worthy of the study, as survivals, of the comparative ethnologist. The contrabandistas of the province are among the boldest in Spain; they cross the Douro and its deep ravine, sometimes on rafts or on inflated skins; at others, when the river is in flood, in baskets suspended from ropes flung across the whole ravine.

_Zamora_ (10,000), formerly a strong walled city on the Douro, in a rich country, notwithstanding the rail which unites it to the Medina del Campo, still remains one of the decaying towns of Spain. Toro (9000), higher up the stream, is a busier town. A great impulse will probably be given to all this district, now one of the most behindhand in Spain, by the completion of the Portuguese lines of Beira-alta, connecting Lisbon and Oporto with Paris by the North Spanish lines. Benavente (5000), on the Esla, is the only other town we have to notice.

_Leon_, which gave its name to one of the old kingdoms of Spain before the re-conquest of the Castiles, is full of towns which recall the glories of the past, but which are of little importance in modern times.

The capital (9000) is noted for its cathedral and churches, which are perhaps the purest specimens of Gothic, unmixed with Arabian art, to be found in Spain. The province is generally mountainous, especially to the north and west, and the higher lands afford excellent summer pasture for flocks from the plains, and even from Estremadura. The valley of the Esla is extremely fertile. Astorga (5000) may be considered as the Capital of the Maragatos, of whom we have spoken above; like Sahagun (3000), it is a town of ancient consequence now dwindling to insignificance. The "_fuero_" or charter of Sahagun, 1085, was the model of the "_fueros_" or const.i.tutional privileges of the Castiles, which were eventually lost in the war of the _comuneros_ in the time of Charles V.

_Palencia._--Through this province pa.s.ses the ca.n.a.l of Castile from Alar del Rey to Valladolid, borrowing its waters from the Pisuerga, and is the most useful for transport of all the ca.n.a.ls of Spain. This waterway is less needed now, owing to the railway of the north from Valladolid to Santander, to Bilbao, and to San Sebastian, which runs parallel to it; but it will be always available for local traffic. The capital is a walled city on the banks of the Carrion, a little above its junction with the Pisuerga, an affluent of the Douro; its cathedral is remarkable for its size and simplicity, but is otherwise inferior to Leon. The valleys, watered by these rivers are very rich in cereals, which find their outlet for exportation at Santander. The great coal-field of the Asturias extends into the north of this province, and at Barruelo de Santillana is largely worked by the Northern Railway Company, and supplies Madrid with a yearly increasing quant.i.ty of coal. The villages near the mines are fast becoming populous towns.