Ainay-le-Chateau / Ainay-le-Château

Listed in the Patrimoine des communes de l'Allier (1999) as a stone font of the "Bas Moyen Age". The building is listed in Mérimée [réf. PA00092970] as being re-built through the ages: "12e siècle ; 13e siècle ; 16e siècle ; 4e quart 17e siècle [...] Du sanctuaire roman subsiste la partie occidentale qui en constituait le transept et dont la travée médiane supportait le clocher qui a été reconstruit au 13e siècle. La nef romane a sans doute été démolie au 16e siècle". Since the church itself dates from the 11th-12th century there must have been an early font here, but this is not the one. The present fontconsists of an oval basin raised on a rectangular base; the sides of the basin have a fluted pattern all around. On-site notes: a number of details about this font stood out immediately: there is no hardware evidence from a lid; the walls of the basin are too thin for a medieval work; the shell edge and the fluting pattern are of much later workmanship; finally, the oval shape and the partinioning of the basin well in two, with the drain in one of them. These are all indicators of a much later work, probably 17th-cent., if not even later. The font is definitely not a medieval work.