Santander

The baptismal font in the Cathedral is a marble Arabic vessel re-purposed as a stoup and later a font. Noted and illustrated in the 9 November 2017 edition of Noticias de la Universidad de Cantabria [https://web.unican.es/noticias/Paginas/2017/noviembre_2017/La-Pila-hispanomusulmana-de-la-Catedral-de-Santander,-pieza-del-mes.aspx] [accessed 9 May 2025]; the article relates the tradition that the former marble public fountain was captured in Seville in 1248, and was carried to Santander by local sailors; the article offers several translation versions of the Arabic inscription on its sides; it further notes that it had been attached to a pillar near the north door of the cathedral serving there as holy-water stoup: "La pila hispanomusulmana de la Catedral de Santander, pieza del mes. Según la tradición, fue traída desde Sevilla por los marinos cántabros que tomaron parte en la ocupación de la capital hispalense en 1248 [...]" The article favours the 1947 translation of the Arabic inscription by 1947 por E. García Gómez: "Soy en mi pureza más esplendorosa que el cristal de roca; mi cuerpo está hecho de blanca plata. Cuando viene a juntarse conmigo el agua límpida, parece perlas que se derraman en un hueco cóncavo. El (agua) es en realidad, (de rango) inferior a mí, aunque yo soy (también) un cuerpo hecho de agua sólida". The marble object consists of a rectangular basin bearing an Arabic inscription on its sides [cf. supra]; raised on a square capital and a slender round columnar base and a round-to-square lower base. A number of earlier sources on the font and its inscription are reproduced in https://storage.e.jimdo.com/file/307ecdc7-dc52-46e0-88a4-629d1c7bedb7/BRAC-055-10.pdf [accessed 9 May 2025]