Faido No. 1 / Faidu / Faydo / Paldu

A baptismal font in this church is reported in Madoz (1847): "ermita (Nuestra Señora de la Peña), en donde existe la pila bautismal". Tub-shaped baptismal font illustrated in Eusko Ikaskuntza [https://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/documentary-collection/multimedia-gallery/mu-81803/#] [accessed 10 August 2024]. Described and illustrated in Bilbao (1994) as a baptismal font perhaps of the pre-Romanesque period; it is bucket-shaped, the main part raised over a squat lower base to which it now appears cemented; the only ornamentation appears to be a scotia or indentation that runs all around the basin, about halfway down, more or less level with the depth of the inner well. Bilbao (ibid.) refers to the monolithic fonts of the Cerdagne and Roussillon studied in Delcor, but suggests that the font at Faido has more in common with the font at Perpignan dated to the 11th century in Delcor [cf. entry in this Index], and adds that the Faido font may be older [NB: the font at Perpignan is actually a re-purposed Roman colum]. Further to Bilbao's comparison of this font with the one at Perpignan, neither the style, nor the material, execution or size makes such comparison fathomable. Bilbao (ibid.) cites entries in the Catálogo Monumental de la Diócesis de Vitoria and in Portilla.