Metz No. 2

INFORMATION

Font ID: 03625MET
Object Type: Baptistery
Object Details: baths, Roman
Font Century and Period/Style: 7th century, Early Christian
Church / Chapel Name: Baptistery next to the church of St-Pierre[aux-Nonnains?] [disappeared?]
Church Address: 1 Rue de la Citadelle, 57000 Metz, France
Site Location: Meurthe-et-Moselle, Grand Est, France, Europe
Directions to Site: Sain-Pierre is located off the Rue de la Citadelle, just E of the Bd Poincaré
Additional Comments: recycled baptistery: Roman baths into a baptistery?
Font Notes:
Corblet reports that, according to the "Actes de saint Clément, évêque de Metz", this bishop had a baptistery constructed about the same time as the church he had already built in the honour of the Apostle St. Peter. This baptistery, in which bishop Clément "gagna beaucoup d'âmes à Jésus-Christ", was dedicated to the honour of St. John the Baptist. (Corblet, 1881, v. 2, p. 68). Another source [cf. infra] states that the church of St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains "is supposed to be the oldest in France. A Roman basilica in the 4C, it was rebuilt in the 7C and has deteriorated since then" and that "nearby are the ruins of a building thought to have contained the baths". (France: a Phaidon Cultural Guide, 1985, p. 384). The latter structure, the baths, may be the same building referred to as a baptistery in Corblet.

COORDINATES

UTM: 32U 293455 5444099
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 49.115, 6.169444
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 49° 6′ 54″ N, 6° 10′ 10″ E

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: unknown

REFERENCES

  • Corblet, Jules, Histoire dogmatique, liturgique et archéologique du sacrement de baptême, Paris: V. Palme, 1881-1882, vol. 2, p. 68