Echano No. 2 / Etxano

The following information was supplied to BSI by Andrés Ortega, of the Asociación de Amigos del Románico, Pamplona, Spain [email of 8 May 2005 and letter of 20 May 2005]: The quatrefoil-shaped basin was found about sixty years ago inside an old manor house ['Palacio de Olóriz'] located in Olóriz, near Echano, a house that has since been converted into an ecological farm [NB: Ortega notes that the manor and the land had been the property of the Marqués de Salaberri, from whom it had been acquired at the beginning of the 20th century by José Cabodevilla Flamarique. Later the property passed on to Cabodevilla's son, Joaquín Cabpdevilla Díez de Ulzurrun, and it belongs now, in 2005, to the children of the latter]. The basin was one among many old stones found inside the manor house and it was moved to Olóriz and placed as an ornament in the village square by the oak tree. At a later date, ca. 1990, a base was found in one of the oxen stalls of the old manor house and set under the basin. At the present time [8 May 2005] both basin and base are still located in the village square of Olóriz. The basin is of quatrefoil shape both inside and out, with slightly tapering sides, which makes it a rare font in this region [NB: the basin of the baptismal font from Aóiz --cf. Index entry-- is also quatrefoil in shape, though highly decorated]; one of the sides of the basin appears damaged at the upper rim; the basin has a central drain hole. The base on which the font stands is a roughly round pedestal with protrusions at 90-degree angles; these may have been simple vertical moldings or more complex motifs but they are now worn and badly damaged. It is quite possible that this base may not be the original one made for this basin.