Arcas No. 1

Described in Nieto Taberné (1994) and (2001) as a large font then [ca. 1994] located just outside the church; he suggests that it dates from the same period as the church, the 13th century; the lower basin sides are ornamented with large deep-relief ribs, while the band of ornamentation at the upper rim consists of faces, pattée crosses and zig-zag motif. One of the sides of the basin shows a hole just under the ornamentation band, probably from an earlier use as trough or garden ornament? Noted and illustrated in the Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla-La Mancha: Cuenca (2009) as a Romanesque font, the earliest of two in this church, that was for many years used as a garden ornament outside the church, but was brought inside recently; the roughly hemispherical basin has a broad ribbed pattern around its sides and underbowl, with a band of zig-zag above it, except on three of the ribs, which are topped with a Maltese cross in a circle and two human faces; raised on a much-damaged square base decorated with foliage motif. The Enciclopedia… (ibid.) notes the presence of the floral and cross motifs on the fonts at Alconchel de la Estrella, Arandilla del Arroyo, Arcas and Villanueva de los Escuderos. The entry for this church in Arquivoltas [https://www.arquivoltas.com/34-Cuenca/02-Arcas.htm] [accessed 28 November 2025] mentions and illustrates the two fonts in it: "Tiene la iglesia dos pilas [...] La otra Pila Bautismal, más antigua y erosionada tiene en su vaso una cenefa superior decorada en su mayor parte con diseño de zig-zag que resalta sobre sus acanaladuras laterales mientras que en el resto de dicha cenefa hay figuradas dos caras entre las cuales hay esculpida una cruz patada dentro de un círculo. En la parte inferior del vaso hay grandes gallones recogidos en sus base. En su pedestal figura una decoración vegetal".