San Antolin de Bedon No. 1 / San Antolín de Bedón

Described and illustrated in Ruiz de la Peña (2002: 239) as a monolithic polygonal basin (hexagonal?) believed lost ca. 1936 [Civil War period]; below a roll moulding at the upper rim, the sides are ornamented with various forms of foliage, all in large motifs; the extant photograph [cf. infra] shows a large outer hole made on one of the angles [NB: very unlikely the original drainage; it may indicate the use of the font for purposes other than liturgical (e.g., water trough?) at some time in its past]. Ruiz de la Peña is inclined to date to the late 12th or early 13th century. [NB: the source photograph mentioned in this author is described as being from the "archivo M.A.S." and dated ca. 1918, at present in the "archivo fotográfico del R.I.D.E.A." [Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos]. The author cites her own paper on this font: La pila bautismal de San Antolín de Bedón", in Bedoniana I (1999: 27ff), in which she informs that ca. 1893 this font was at the new parish church of Naves [nearby]; the last known whereabouts of the font date to 1936 when the font was removed from the church during a fire, to be transported to the Museo Arqueológico Provincial; as the author informs, there are no records in that meseum about the font ever getting there. That is the last known of this font, although the photographic evidence remains. [We are grateful to Ana Belén de los Toyos de Castro of the Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, Oviedo, Spain) for the image of this font and the additional information] [cf. Index entry for San Anolin de Bedon No. 2 for the water-stoup (?) in this monastery]