Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/302

286 286 SPANISH ARCHITECTURE. Part II, Internally it has twisted columns similar to those at Villena (Wood- cut No. 720). The two buildings are said to have been designed by the same architect, but the columns in this instance are much more attenuated than in the church. The exterior has at least the merit of expressing the internal arrangements. On one side of the central tower is the great hall, on the other the public rooms, and above these an upper story with an open arcade. The last is a feature very frequently found in Spain, not only in Mediaeval palaces, but in those of the Renaissance period, and wherever it exists it is one of the most pleasing that can be found ; it gives all the shadow of a cornice, without its inconvenient and useless projection, and crowns the whole design in an appropriate and pleasing manner. Castles. One exaraj^le must suffice to recall attention to the fact of the existence of " Chateaux en Espagne," On the plains of Castille they 731. Castle of Cocos, Castille. (.From Villa Amil.) are not only numerous, but of great magnificence ; erected apparently before the fear of inroads from the Moors of Granada had passed away, or at all events when a military aristocracy was indispensable to save the nation from reconquest by these dreaded enemies. Of these the Kasr at Segovia is one of the best known and most frequently drawn. It has the advantage of being still inhabited, and its turrets retained, till recently, their tall conical roofs, which gave