Naranco / Santa Maria de Naranco

In his book on Spain and the Spaniards (1842-1844) Widdrington relates his visit to the church of Santa Maria de Naranco and subsequent encounter with the priest ther: "I had observed that the baptismal font was modern, and we came out I noticed a round hollow block of white marble, about a yard in diameter, perfectly plain, but looking like a piece of a column, lying near the entrance, and on inquiring, he said it was the old font, and that when he repaired the church, he had turned it ou! I made a sort of remonstrance on this strange proceeding, when he said, with a hearty laugh, 'I take care of antiquities and things valuable, but I care nothing about such as this, and so I kicked it out and put a better one in its place!' The substitute was a sort of bad classic imitation of porphyry". Described and illustrated in García de Castro (1995): a fragment of the underbowl and part of the side of the original baptismal font from the 9th century; this author argues that the fragment currently at Lillo is actually what is left of the baptismal font at Santa Maria de Naranco and presents supporting documentation to prove his thesis. One of these documents is a ca. 1908 photograph of the Naranco font in the Archivo MAS [negative C 25 420] published in F. Selgas Albuerne's Monumentos ovetenses del s. IX" (1908: p. opp. p. 120) in which it appears located near the disappeared north steps of the north portal. Ars hispaniae (1947: pl. 373) shows the façade of San Miguel de Lillo; the font is clearly visible outside, to the right of the door: it is a barrel-shaped font with two (?) broad flat mouldings in its middle; there is obvious damage to the rim and upper side, a large chunk missing on one side. Bonet Correa (1967: pls. 62 and 68) shows the same view but obviously at a later date: the sides of the font are reduced alarmingly, with only a part of the side and the bottom now remaining. The fragment shown in García de Castro [cf. supra] presents an appearance consistent with the images in Schlunk and Bonet Correa, with even less of the side left. On-site notes [visited on June 2, 2005]: the fragment shown in the earlier pictures has been moved inside the church at San Miguel de Lillo and is located in a croner of the transept; the fragment measures 142 cm in outer diametre and 76 inside; the total height at the tallest end is 25 cm; it has a central drain -- we were not allowed to photograph the fragment during our visit]. [cf. Index entry for Lillo for information on the disappeared fragment of the Lillo font]