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                          THE BROCHURE SERIES
                     Spanish Wrought-Iron Screens
                    XII. Century Capitals from the
                    Benedictine Monastery, Monreale
                              MARCH, 1900


[Illustration: PLATE XIX      SCREEN, ROYAL CHAPEL, GRANADA CATHEDRAL]




                                  THE
                            BROCHURE SERIES
                    OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.

                     1900.      MARCH      No. 3.




                     SPANISH WROUGHT-IRON SCREENS.


From earliest times the numerous iron mines which exist in Spain,
especially in the Cantabrian provinces, have been worked, and their
presence has developed in that country excellent objects of art in
metal at all times; but owing to the perishable character of iron, the
slight intrinsic value of the material, and the little care taken of
such fabrics, examples of very early specimens, with the exception of
a few interesting ones which have reached us from the Spanish Arabs,
have disappeared. The most interesting examples of Moorish manufacture
which have survived are some iron keys of most delicate tracery. Their
perfect state of preservation shows that they were used only as symbols
of cities or fortresses, and, on given occasions, offered to kings or
great people, and even in the present day in Spain this ceremony is
kept up, and a key signifying the freedom of the palace, is offered
to the foreign princes who stay at the royal residence in Madrid.
In a similar manner, as far back as the middle ages, keys have been
presented to Spanish sovereigns on occasions of their visits to such
towns as Toledo and Seville; and a ceremony of swearing