Sainte-Mere-Eglise / Saincte Mariglise / Sainte-Mère-Église / Sancte Marie Ecclesia / Ste-Mère-Église

INFORMATION

FontID: 03277SAI
Church/Chapel: Eglise paroissiale Notre-Dame de Sainte-Mère-Église / Sancte Marie Ecclesia / Ste-Mère-Église
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin
Church Location: Rue Koenig, 50480 Sainte-Mère-Église, France
Country Name: France
Location: Manche, Normandie
Directions to Site: Sainte-Mère-Église is located off the D15-D974 crossroads, 14 km N of Carentan, 37 km N of Saint-Lô, about 40 km SE of Cherbourg.
Font Location in Church: Near the southern entrance, wall-mounted
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Romanesque
J. Seguin reports that the holy-water stoup near the southern entrance of this church may well have been formerly a font and describes it thus: now wall-mounted, the limestone vessel has a rather crude ornamentation including floral and other vegetal motifs; a little below those there is a fragment of the base adorned with three eagle heads. There is no certainty that this was indeed a font (Vivier, 1941). There is an entry for a holy-water stoup in Palissy [ref.: PM50007436] but is dated there to the 17th-18th century at the earliest. A baptismal font of the 18th century in this church is also listed in Palissy [ref.: PM50002514]: "Fonts baptismaux (pierre calcaire) et leur couvercle bombé (bois sculpté). Cuvette en plomb du 19e siècle. Traces de marbrures exécutées en 1781 par Philippe Tostain de la Rivière de Picauville (voir R. Villand, p. 192). Le couvercle bombé est aujourd'hui remplacé par un couvercle en bois de sapin mouluré et vernis [...] 18e siècle".

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 49.408722, -1.316389
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 49° 24′ 31.4″ N, 1° 18′ 59″ W
UTM: 30U 622130 5474256

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Vivier-Seguin)
Font Shape: Unknown
Basin Exterior Shape: Unknown
Diameter (includes rim): 60 cm
Notes on Measurements: In Vivier, 1941, p. 40

REFERENCES

Vivier, Em., Les Anciens fonts baptismaux du Département de la Manche, Avranches: Presses de "L'Opinion de la Manche", 1941