Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/566

548 GERMERSHEIM, a fortified town in llhcni GERONA, a city of Spain, the chief town of the province of Gerona (one of the four into which Catalonia was divided), is situated about 54 miles N of Barcelona on the railway to Perpignan in France, near the junction of the Ter and the Oﬁa. The older part of the town occupies the steep slope of the hill of the Capuchins, and with its old- fashioned buildings presents a picturesque appearance against a background of loftier heights; while the newer portion stretches down into the plain and beyond the river, which adds to the effect of the scene by a bridge of three arches. The old city walls with their bastions still remain, though in a dilapidated state; and the hill is crowned by what were at one time very strong fortiﬁcations. At present (:erona is a comparatively insigniﬁcant place, although it is the seat of a bishop, has four parish churches, an instituto, a seminary, a public library, and a theatre, numbers about 15,000 inhabitants, and carries on the manufacture of paper and cotton and woollen goods. To the ecclesiologist, ‘iowever, it offers unusual attractions. The cathedral is one of the grandest specimens of Gothic architecture in Spain, the nave being the widest pointed vault in Christendom, as it measures no less than 73 feet from side to side, while Albi, the next in size, is only 58 feet, and Westminster Abbey is only 38. The old cathedral on the same site was used as a mosque by the Moors, and on their expulsion in it appears to have been very greatly modiﬁed, if not entirely rebuilt. During the new works were again carried out on an extensive scale, but it was not till the that the proposal to erect the present magniﬁcent nave was originated by the master of the Works, Gullielmo Bofﬁy. “The keystone of the last division of the vault,” says Mr Street, “ seems to have been placed in the time of Bishop Benito, so late as circa,” and in the same bishop laid the ﬁrst stone of the bell tower. “ At the east end of the nave three arches open into the choir and its aisles, which with their many subdivisions give an extraordinary impression of size to the vast vault of the nave, and make it look larger than it. really is.” The general appearance of the exterior is rather ungainly, but there is a ﬁne approach by a flight of 86 steps to the facade, which rises in tiers and terminates in an oval rose-window. Among the interior decorations the most remarkable is the retablo and baldachin of the ; and among the tombs may be mentioned those of Bishop Berenger (ob.), Ramon Berenger (Cap de Estopa), and the Countess Ermesinda (ob.). The collegiate church of San Feliu (St Felix) is mainly of the, but it was considerably modified in the, and its facade dates from the 18th. It is one of the few Spanish churches that can boast of a genuine spire, and it thus forms a striking feature in the general view of the town. Besides the tomb of Alvarez and the sepulchre of the patron saint, it contains an image of St Narciso, which, according to the local super— stition, had the power of producing swarms of poisonous flies, as was sufﬁciently provel by the destruction of the French investing the city in and again in 1681. The Benedictine church of San Pedro de los (tallos is an interesting Romanesque building of early date ; and in the same vicinity is a small church worthy of notice as a rare Spanish example of a transverse triapsal plan.

1em 1em  GERRHA, an ancient city of Arabia Felix, on the west side of what is now the Persian Gulf, described by Strabo as inhabited by Chaldzean exiles from Babylon, who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. Three identifications of the site have been attempted, D’Auville choosing El Katig, 1\' iebnhr preferring Koneit, and Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrcin.  GERS, a department of France, composed of the whole or parts of the ﬁve old districts of (fascony, viz., Armagnac, Astarac, Lomagne, Connninges, and (‘omlornois. It is bounded N. by the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 1‘). by Tarn—et—Garonne and Haute—Garonne, S. by llautes— Pyrenees and BasscsPyrenées, and W. by Landes. It lies between 431 17' and 44" 5' N. lat.,and between 1° 10' 13., and 0° 18' 111'. long, being about 72 miles in length from E. to “1., and 53 in breadth from N. to S. This department is hilly, particularly in the south, where it is mostly covered with ramiﬁcations of the Pyrenees. Some of these in the south rise nearly 1200 feet above the level of the sea, but they rapidly decrease in height towards the north. The principal of them run from N.E., N., and N.W., and are separated by longitudinal valleys of great beauty and fertility, narrow in the south, but opening in the north toa width of 3 or 4 miles. . The greater part of the depart- ment belongs to the basin of the “atomic, while a small portion in the west is drained by the Adour. The chief afilucnts of the formerare the Save, (limone, A rratz, (tors, and Raise ; and those of the latter, the Arms, Midou, and Dousc, the last two uniting and taking the name of Midouse, before joining the Adour. The climate is temperate and salubrious, but very changeable. There is seldom any snow, and there