The northern façade of the Cathedral is entered through three portals, the westernmost of which, the Puerta del Sagrario, is unfinished. The Puerta de los Naranjos and the Puerta del Lagarto lead from the _patio_. The Puerta del Lagarto retains some traces of its Moorish origin. It is named after the patched and painted stuffed alligator, which has hung here since about the thirteenth century. Here may also be seen a huge elephant’s tusk, and a bridle said to have belonged to the Cid.
Referring more particularly to the exterior of the Cathedral, Caveda says: “The general effect is truly majestic. The open-work parapets which crown the roofs, the graceful lanterns of the eight winding stairs that ascend in the corners to the vaults and galleries, the flying buttresses that spring lightly from aisle to nave, as the jets of a cascade from cliff to cliff, the slender pinnacles that cap them, the proportions of the arms of the transept and of the buttresses supporting the side walls, the large pointed windows that open, one above another, just as the aisles and chapels to which they belong rise over each other, the pointed portals and entrances--all these combine in an almost miraculous manner, although lacking the wealth of detail, the airy grace, and the delicate elegance that characterise the cathedrals of Léon and Burgos.”
Entering the church, the gloom renders it difficult for a time to distinguish its exact configuration. We find it is divided into a nave and four aisles, the former being fifty feet in width. The fine marble floor was laid in the years 1787 to 1795. There is little ornamentation, the interior displaying a noble simplicity, the beautiful effect being produced mainly by the grandeur and symmetry of the vaultings, archings, and pillars. The seventy-four exquisite stained-glass windows, however, form a decorative series of the richest kind. They are, for the most part, the work of northern artists. Micer Cristóbal Aleman (Master Christoph the German) began the first--the first stained-glass window seen in Seville--in 1504, the work being carried on by the German Heinrich, the Flemings Bernardino of Zeeland and Juan Bernardino, Carlos of Bruges, and the great master Arnao of Flanders. The two latter designers are said to have received ninety thousand ducats for their work. The last window was completed in 1662 by a Spaniard named Juan Bautista de Léon. The finest windows are generally considered to be those representing the Ascension, St Mary Magdalen, Lazarus, and the Entry into Jerusalem, by Arnao the Fleming and his brother (1525), and the Resurrection, by Carlos of Bruges (1558).