Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1896 — CHURCHES OF GRANADA. [ARTICLE]

CHURCHES OF GRANADA.

At Once Maggiiflcent and Beggarly* Solemn and Gay. It was in its churches that I though Granada at'once most magnificent and most solemn and gay. I. know nothing in France or Ifyly to compare with the effect of the cathedral when the sun-steeped streets were' left, the leather curtain was lifted, and we were suddenly in darkness In far shadows, vague, motionless figures, prostrate before It. Their silent fervor In the strange, scented dusk gave a clpe to the ecstasy of a Theresa, of’ an Ignatius. But it was well to turn back quickly into matter-of-fact daylight. To linger was to be reminded that ‘mystery has its price, solemnity Its tawdriness. In cathedral and capllla real If we ventured to look at the royal tombs, at the grille—which even in Spain is without equal—at the retablos with their wealth of ornament, one sacristan after another kept close at our heels, impudently expectant.

If in unknown little church bur eyes grew accustomed to darkness, it was that they might be offended with Virgins gleaming in silks and jewels, with Christs clothed in . petticoats. And if we did onee visit tlie Cnrttija, It satisfied pur curiosity 1 where other show churches were cbucerned. The word Cartuja hung upon the lips of every visitor at the Hotel Roma. Foreigners wrestled hopelessly with it. Spaniards repea tea it tenderly, as if in love with its gasping gutturals. We never sat down to a meat that some one did not urge us to the enjoyment of its wonders. At last, in self-defense, we went. The Cartuja’s architecture struck us as elaborate, its decoration as abandoned as the gush that had sent us to it. It had not even the amusing gaiety of Bohemia's rococo, but was pretentious and florid in a dull, vulgar way, more in keeping witli gilded case or popular resturant. But to this visit my record owes a place, since It was our one concession to the guide-book’s commands. It pleased us better to forget the exaggerated: tortured flamboyance in the kindly, twilight of churches the names of which we never troubled to ask.—Century.