Alcaracejos, Cerro del Germo, El Germo, in Pozoblanco / Espiel

A communication by Angel Delgado to the Real Academia de la Historia published in its bulletin of 1912 refers to a basilica and Visigothic inscriptions in Espiel, and mentions that in this site, at the northern end, are steps leading down to a sunken piscina belonging to a baptistery: "en el lado boreal las gradas de descenso y la piscina corresponden á un bautisterio". The discovery in 1913 of a Visigothic basilica here was reported by landowner Juan Ruiz Blanco to the Real Academia de la Historia and published in its Boletin (1914); the report includes, among many other details, the presence of a baptismal font in the site: "hemos dejado de consignar que en dicho piso se halla la pila bautismal con dos escalones para bajar á ella, donde por inmersión debía en, aquel tiempo, y según el-rito gótico,' administrarse el sacramento del bautismo*. Ancient church here is noted by Schlunk (1947) [?] as similar to those in Casa Herrera and San Pedro de Alcántara. Described in Palol (1967: 76, 165) as a tetra-lobed sunken font furnished with two steps in the inner well. Palol (ibid.) points out that the name "Espiel" has been used for this same church, which has resulted in the erroneous belief that there were two churchs. Two entries in the catalogue of the Gabinete de Antigüedades of the Academia de la Historia for Andalucía (Maier, 2000), with signatures CACO/9/7952/91(1) and CACO/9/7952/91(2), report the discovery of a Visigothic basilica with its baptismal font in the locality of Alcaracejos, near Pozoblanco, in 1913. [cf. Index entry for Burguillos del Cerro for another such finding with description of the font, although no other details are available for the font at Alcaracejos at present.] [NB: the fact that the site is actually in Espiel, and not in Alcaracejos, has created confusion and at times two different churches are reported, there being only one]. The site is included in the Heritage building site of the Cultural Heritage of the Andalusian Institute of the Historical Heritage [www.iaph.es/patrimonio-inmueble-andalucia/resumen.do?id=i3715] [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 ES] [accessed 19 June 2017]: "Este sitio arqueológico consta de dos edificios: una iglesia con baptisterio y un edificio de funcionalidad dudosa [...] El edificio basilical es de tres naves separadas por columnas, con pilastras adicionales posteriores, las medidas son: 20 metros de longitud, anchura total 16 metros, la nave central 8 metros y las laterales 2 metros cada una. Thilo Ulbert data su momento de construcción entre finales del siglo VI e inicios del VII." The site is reported as excavated in the 1960s (?) by Thilo Ulbert, of the Instituto Alemán de Madrid (Madrider Mittelungen), its findings published in German in Madrider Mitterlungen (1968); a Spanish translation of this appeared in 1971 [cf. Bibliographical references].