Vilar Maior No. 1

Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Standing permission

Results: 12 records

design element - motifs - ball

Scene Description: one in each of the spandrels created by the concentric circles of the underbowl

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - concentric circles

Scene Description: deeply carved, all around the underbowl

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - moulding

Scene Description: all around the rim

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - moulding

Scene Description: near the very bottom of the underbowl

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - rope or sawtooth?

Scene Description: a band all around the centre

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - unidentified

Scene Description: several of them [hand-shaped?]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - patterns - ribbed

Scene Description: in a parenthetical arrangement between the motifs

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

symbol - cross - Greek - Maltese - in a circle

Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

symbol - cross - Greek - Maltese - in a circle

Scene Description: a second one -- the Knights Hospitaller had much influence in this area at the time, so it is not surprising to see Maltese crosses here

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - interior

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - corbel

Scene Description: from the ruins of the church, chancel part -- notice the Maltese cross

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2016

Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 June 2016 by Joost Limburg

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - detail

Scene Description: the ruins of the Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo, in Vilar Maior

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Capeia Arraiana, 2016

Image Source: digital image in Capeia Arraiana [http://capeiaarraiana.pt/category/camara-e-juntas/freguesias-e-anexas/vilar-maior/] [accessed 23 June 2016]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

INFORMATION

FontID: 11059VIL
Church/Chapel: Igreja Paroquial de São Pedro [originally from the Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo, in the same village?]
Church Patron Saints: St. Peter
Church Location: Vilar Maior, 6320 Sabugal, Portugal
Country Name: Portugal
Location: Beira Interior, Distrito da Guarda
Directions to Site: Located off (W) the N332, in the municipality of Sebugal, W of the Spanish border, about 30 km SSE of Guarda
Historical Region: Beira alta
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Late Romanesque / Early Gothic?
Cognate Fonts: the fonts at nearby Alfaiates and Sebugal?
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Joost Limburg, of www.romanicoportugal.org, for his photograph of this church and font
Church Notes: the Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo, where this font is said to come from, is in the same village, Vilar Maior; it is described in SIPA [IPA.00002959], as "moçárabe ou visigótica" re-built in the 13thC
Noted and illustrated in SIPA [IPA.00002965]: "Junto ao nicho colateral da Epístola, surge a antiga pia batismal, em cantaria de granito formada pela taça em forma de cálice, decorada com círculos concêntricos e quadrifólios [...] pia batismal antiga, supostamente da época visigótica, originária da Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo". Described and illustrated in Loução (2004), who suggests a Visigothic date for it. The roughly hemispheric basin appears executed in the old fashion of large baptismal fonts without a foot, but some elements of the ornamentation -e.g., the 'Templar' cross- are definitely not Visigothic. If anything, one could relate this object to a baptismal font originally from the Burgos area and now in the Archaeological Museum in Madrid [cf. Index entry for Mazariegos], which dates from the mid-12th century. The font at Vilar Maior is probably even later, perhaps of the date of the conquest of Vilar Maior from the Arabs in 1230 by the king of Leon, a conquest in which the Knights Templar took part. Loução's (ibid.) claim to the antiquity and uniqueness of this object is unfortunately much exagerated. The font is a monolitic basin decorated with a moulding at the upper rim; below it is a band containing a number of symbols: a 'Templar cross', several hand-like motifs, etc., and a filling of parenthetical ribs around the motifs, all around; the centre of the basin has a band of decoration that at spots looks like saw-tooth or zig-zag, and at others more like a rope / torsade pattern; the lower register of the basin is decorated with a series of concentric circles with small ball motifs in the spandrels. The basin rests directly on the ground, without a base.

COORDINATES

UTM: 29T 662773 4468368

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, granite
Number of Pieces: one
Font Shape: hemispheric
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: no lining

REFERENCES

Loução, Paulo Alexandre, Os templários na formação de Portugal, Lisboa: Ésquilo, 2004