Guadalajara No. 2

The Museo de Guadalajara informs that this font was found in 1982: two persons found it in the municipality of Illana, in an area near 'Los Postes', by the river Tagus; the finders donated it to the Museo. This same source informs that the font may have been from a church that was destroyed during the Civil War [1936-1939] or perhaps replaced by a newer font in an unknown church. [source: e-mail dated 9 November 2005 from Fernando Aguado Díaz, Director del Museo de Guadalajara to BSI]. On-site notes: the large stone basin from a baptismal font was at the time of the BSI visit [19 June 2005] by the bicycle parking lot of the Palacio del Infantado, in downtown Guadalajara capital; the large basin was laying inverted on wooden planks; the basin appears roughly hemispherical though the sides are almost cylindrical; a pattern of very shallow flat ribs covers the outer surface of the basin, but there is at least two croos-in-a-circle symbols (one appears to be a Maltese cross) inscribed in a circle on one of the sides, probably the front side of the basin; the underbowl is decorated with large zigzag and/or diapered motif, and there is large drain hole in the centre; the lower end of the basin underbowl has been carved to match a round base. One side of the basin is badly damaged (or it was left unfinished, if the font was meant to fit against a wall or recess); the drain hole was being used as a rubbish deposit and there were traces that a fire had been set in it. [NB: the Museo de Guadalajara [cf. supra] informs that due to the lack of space during the renovations, the font was temporarily located in the place where BSI found it; the font is scheduled to be restored and added to the the permanent exhibits of the Museo. Noted and illustrated in the Enciclopedia del románico en Castilla-La Mancha: Guadalajara (2009) as the very worn and damaged basin of a sandstone font probably of the 13th or 14th century, originally from Illana; the basin part that remains is roughly hemispherical in shape, with most of the upper rim worn out, as well as part of the underbowl, which the source suggests may be the result of having used it as a mill-stone; the sides are decorated with diagonal bands with inscribed crosses, one of them a Latin cross in a triangle; the underbowl has lozenge motif, and there is a wide centre drain hole in the bottom of the basin.