Barcena / Bárcena del Monasterio

Described and illustrated in García de Castro (1995) as the original baptismal font of this coenobium (later a parish church), probably from the 10th century; the sanstone font consists of a bucket-shaped basin, a cylindrical pedestal base and a circular lower base, all very crudely executed and plain except for a torus-scotia combination hinted on the lower base. This author (ibid.) gives the baptismal font at Conforcos [cf. Index entry] as a cognate, although only for the shape of the basin, since GdeC states that the base of the Bárcena font is a later addition and that the the basin was probably meant to rest directly on the ground [NB: the basin is only 44 cm tall and looks very much like the one at nearby Sangoñedo / Sangoñeu]. Múñiz López & García Alvarez-Busto (2007) suggest it belongs to a group of fonts established by García de Castro [cf. supra] that includes cognate fonts at San Miguel de Conforcos (Aller), San Miguel de Barcena (Tineo) and San Juan de Sangoñéu (Tineo) and the one at Castrillón. This a crude work of a local mason; crudeness need not be equated with age; medieval, in any case.