Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/258

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242
SPANISH ARCHITECTURE.
Part II.

242 SPANISH ARCHITECTURE. Part n. BOOK YII. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. SPAIN. INTRODUCTION". CHRONOLOGY. DATES. Gothic conquest — Athaulf . . . a.d. 411 Moorish conquest 711 Kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon estab- lished, about 760 Sancho I., King of Castille 1005 Alphonso VI. unites all Northern Spain into one kingdom 1072 Henry de Besangon — foundation of liing- dom of Portugal 1095 DATES. Alphonso III. — conquest of Toledo a.d. 1085 Conquest of Cordova 1226 " " Valencia 12.38 " " Seville and Murcia .... 1243 Ferdinand el Santo died 1252 Alonso el Sabio 1252-1284 Pedro the Cruel 1350-1.36!) Ferdinand and Isabella 1474-1516 Conquest of Granada 1492 SPAIN is one of those countries regarding the architecture of which it is almost as difficult to write anything consecutive as regarding that of Scotland. This does not arise from the paucity of examples, nor from their not having been examined and described, but from the same cause as was insisted upon in speaking of Scotch art, that the style was not indigenous, but borrowed from other nations, and con- sequently practised far more capriciously than if it had been elaborated by the Spaniards themselves. In the very early ages of their architectural history we do find the inhabitants of the Peninsula making rude attempts to provide them- selves with churches. These, however, were so unsuited for their purposes that so soon as returning prosperity put the Spaniards in a position to erect larger edifices, they at once fell into the arms of the French architects, who had advanced far beyond thcin in the adaptation of classical materials to Christian jturposes. When tired of the French styles, they enlisted the Germans to assist them in