Tours No. 1

INFORMATION

FontID: 03640TOU
Object Type: Baptistery
Church/Chapel: Baptistery of Saint-Jean [disappeared]
Church Patron Saints: St. John [the Baptist?]
Church Location: [NB: address & coordinates given for the Ancienne chapelle Saint-Jean à Tours] 12 Rue Rapin 37000 Tours, France
Country Name: France
Location: Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire
Directions to Site: The present church is located in the historic centre of the city, just S of the Rue des Halles
Century and Period: 6th century, Early Christian
Font Notes:
Corblet reports that Gregory of Tours, who became bishop of Tours in 573 A.D., had a baptistery built near the cathedral, that it was dedicated to the honour of Saint-Jean and that he placed there relics of "saint Jean, de saint Serge et de saint Bénigne". It was located to the north of the basilica of St-Martin , and served as chapter-room for the collegiate. (Corblet, 1881-1882, v. 2, p. 73). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints says that "Gregory built also built a new baptistery and enriched this, the old baptistery", thus stating that there was a second baptistery in Tours mentioned in Gregory's Historia Francorum (Farmer, 1987, p. 195)

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 47.392434, 0.681871
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 47° 23′ 32.76″ N, 0° 40′ 54.74″ E
UTM: 31T 325061 5251381

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: unknown

REFERENCES

Corblet, Jules, Histoire dogmatique, liturgique et archéologique du sacrement de baptême, Paris: V. Palme, 1881-1882
Farmer, David Hugh, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987