Melas No. 1 / Mélas No. 1

Described in Saint-Andéol (1862). Corblet (1881-1882, vol. 2: 67-68) [after Saint-Andéol] reports that a baptistery existed in Mélas since the time of bishop Auxonne in the 5th century. The octagonal building, which still exists, was made of a schistous limestone; each of its eight sides had an apse separated from the next by a column topped with a corinthian capital. The baptistery was abandoned ca. 430 A.D. when the episcopal see was moved to Viviers. In the 7th century a convent of nuns was established in the area and it turned the baptistery into a funerary chapel redoing the floor. In the 13th century it was annexed to the northern side of the parish church via a short vaulted corridor. In 1862, reports Corblet, the viscount of Saint-Andéol, an archaeologist who discovered several ancient baptisteries, described and illustrated the church and the attached baptistery in the 'Revue de l'art chrétien' and, five years later, he was able to confirm his previous conjectures with the discovery of a square basin, the original "piscine" of the baptistery. Corblet states that the former baptistery is now [i.e., ca. 1881] being used as a "chapelle de catéchisme".