Read "Journey to Portugal" by José Saramago online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The traveller did not see much of Leiria. Whether this was his fault, chance, or unavoidable necessity, who can say?
The Cathedral probably suffers from the length of time it took to be completed (over a hundred years), which produced the inevitable fluctuations in a style that became increasingly less sure of itself from its early years onwards. Then came the 1755 earthquake, which brought down part of its front-so that in all honesty it cannot be said that the Cathedral offers any great spiritual rewards, except for strictly religious ones, of course. While the traveller was inside, peering up at the tall columns in the naves and the coffered ceilings, he could hear a ball bouncing against one of the church doors: some children were playing football in the courtyard outside, using one of the doors as the goal, and the goalkeeper was apparently not very good. The sound echoed through the empty naves like a hammer blow, but none of the scattering of people inside appeared concerned, from which the traveller concluded there was a high level of tolerance in Leiria for children's games. Thank goodness.