Chalinargues

Listed by Enlart (1902) as a 13th century font with a round basin. Listed as an early baptismal font in the web version -augmented- of the Églises romanes de Haute Auvergne (tome 1, pp. 45-50) [cantalroman.free.fr/Histoire/quotid.htm]. Described and illustrated as an early font in www.cybercantal.org/ecole/chalinargues/eglise.htm: the basin is roughly bucket-shaped, ornamented with a broad band of floral and star moyifs in different shapes; the sides of the basin are divided into five panels by plain vertical mouldings [NB: only five panels are visible because the font is half-built into the wall]; of these [L->R] one is a six-point star with woven lines with a rosette in its centre; the next is a 8-point two-strand braided roundel with a rosette inscribed, and its arms also made into rosettes; the next is a motif similar to the Tudor rose, with a rosette in the centre and two braided circles of interlaced arches [the other two are not visible in the source]; the chamfered underbowl is plain. The wooden cover, probably 19th-century, is of the "rim-buffet" type, polygonal with vertical sides ending in a crown or crenellated motif around the upper end; above that the next section is pyramidal, in the same polygonal shape; two of the panels, the front ones, are hinged and open to give access to the well of the font; since the font is partly built into the wall, the cover has no back. Listed in Palissy [ref.: PM15000133]: " fonts baptismaux [...] Cinq panneaux séparés par des colonnettes, empatées aux extrémités [...] 13e siècle". [NB: although the various sources date the font to the Romanesque period, chiefly to the 13th century, the complex rosette motifs suggest a later date]. The font is now half-embeded in the south wall, to the left of the entranceway, but it have originally stood on its own, all sides visible to the congregation.