The Cathedrals of Northern Spain

Charles Rudy approaches Spain's cathedrals through the history that shaped their buildings. His architectural travel study moves through Galicia, the north and Castile, with chapters on Santiago, Burgos, Salamanca, Toledo and many smaller centres. Introductory essays connect changing styles with the peninsula's political and religious past. Rudy asks visitors to judge the harmony of a building's parts rather than measure every Spanish church against the styles admired in France.

That principle gives his descriptions a personal, sometimes sharp edge. At Osma he weighs the effect of a crowded entrance, a rose window and an altered tower; the discussion of Palencia turns to the city's earlier fortunes and its bishops. Cathedrals appear as structures shaped by money, local circumstances and repeated changes. Readers interested in church architecture will find both observations about individual buildings and an opinionated account of how historical forces become visible in stone.