Bulletin of the Santayana Society, No. 09 Fall 1991

              1992 SANTAYANA CONFERENCE - AVILA, SPAIN
The first international conference on George Santayana is scheduled in Avila, Spain, for
May 27-SO, 1992. This conference is part of the Columbus celebrations of 1992 and is
being sponsored by the Spanish Cultural Foundation in Avila, the University of
Salamanca, and Texas A&M University. The conference will include scholars from the
United States, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, eastern Europe, the U.S.S.R., Great Britain,
South Africa, and Canada.
Any who wish to participate in or attend the conference are asked to write to Herman J.
Saatkamp, Jr., Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
778434237.
AVUA CATHEDMAL. The Gothic building was larger than the Romanesque one and extended
across the city wall, so that the periphery had to be construed as part of the system of defence (plate
69a). Within the heavy perimeter, however, Master Freuchal, the architect, placed a ring of shallow
chapels around a double ambulatory much like Suger's St Denis. The slender columns, composed of
several monolithic shafts, confirm St. Denis as the model for Avila, although the more domed vaults
and the rectangular arch section interrupt the continuity of the spaces. This is underlined by the
separate vaulting of the chapels, and of course the very small windows, with deep splays, destroy the
extraordinary effect of light that Suger's church had achieved. While this was occasioned at Avila by
the thickness of the city wall, it was also a reaction to northern aesthetics, one which can be found in
later periods of Spanish Gothic; for great windows were not essential in the bright Mediterranean
sun.1
69%. Avila, Cathedral Plan.
69b, Avihi, Cathedral Longitudinal section of choir.
1 These lines, and the plates copied below them, are taken from Gothic Architecture, by Robert
Branner. We wish to thank George Braziller Inc. of New York for permission to copy the citation.