Bk. VII. Ch. II. EARLY SPxVXISII GOTHIC. 249 either to each other or to the work they have to do. Still the com- binations are so picturesque, and the details so elegant, that it is not without regret that we find the style of Alet an<l Roda ])assing away into something more mechanically perfect, but without their quasi-classical refinement. Towards the other extremity of the architectural province we find in the Panteon of the church of San Isidoro at Leon (a. d. 1063) a contemporary example, exliibiting a marked difference of style. At the time when this and the church at Roda were erected, Catalonia belonged architecturally to Aquitaine and Leon to Anjou, or some more completely Gothicized province of France. In consequence, we 691. Panteon of St. Isidoro, Leon. (From Parcerisa.) find the style at Leon much more complete in principle, but very much ruder in detail. The eastern province was in the hands of a Latin people ; the inhabitants of the western must have been far more essentially Gothic in blood, and their style is strongly marked with the impress of their race. Early Spanish Gothic. After three centuries of more or less complete supremacy over the whole of Spain, with the exception of the northern mountain fastnesses, the tide of fortune at length turned against the Moors. During the course of the 11th century the Castiles and all to the north of them were freed forever from their power. Their favorite capital, Toledo,
