Bk. VII. Ch. II. CATHEDRAL AT LEON. 265 proportioned to the size of the building, though its details are open to criticism. It is well supported by the cimborio or dome at the inter- section, though this is even later, having been erected to replace the old dome, which fell in 1539, and seems not to have been completed till 1567. Beyond this again, to the extreme east, rises the chapel of the Connestabile, erected about 1487, and though this also is impure in detail it is beautiful in outline, and groups pleasingly with the other features of the design. The effect of the interior is very much injured by the four great masses of masonry which were intro- duced as piers to support the cimborio when it was rebuilt ; and which, Avith the "Coro" thrust as usual into the nave, _ ■^^ a-^g^^^^^^' ^ greatly destroy the ap- pearance of the building. On the other hand, the richness of the details of the Capilla Maior and of the Connestabile chapel, too;ether with the varietv and elaborateness of the other chapels, make up an interior so poetic and so picturesque that the critic is disarmed, and must admit that Burgos merits the title of a romance in stone if any church does. Leon is a third loth- century church, the de- sign of which seems certainly to have been imported from France. The exact date of its commencement is not known. Mr. Street thinks it about 1250-58, which seems very probable, and it may have been practically completed about 1305, Its dimensions are not unlike those of Burgos ; but it has been very much less altered, and may be taken as the type of a 3-aisled basilica as imported into Spain in the 13th century. In the arrangement of the pier-arches (Woodcut No. 709) it very much resem- bles Beauvais, and in the extent of the clerestory it is more essentially French than almost any other church in Spain. Burgos, on the con- trary (Woodcut No, 710) possesses features not to be found in France, such as the round-arched head to the triforiura, and the rounded form of the clerestory intersecting vault. The tracery of the clerestory 708. Plan of Leon Cathedral. (Reduced from Street's.) Scale 109 ft. to 1 in.
