Cebreiro / O Cebreiro

Although the origial church may date to the 9th century, the baptismal font in Santa María de O Cebreriro dates probably somewhere between the 11th and the 13th centuries. The plain monolithic tub is bucket-shaped and rest directly on the ground, without a base; the interior of the basin is not carved very deep, only about half of the height, being surprisingly shallow for this type of font; the central drain has been plugged with cement; on the side of the basin, towards the upper third, there is a round hole that does not appear to go completely through the thickness of the side and may, perhaps, have been made to fit part of a lock for the cover, although other Spanish and French fonts of this type usually show a larger quadrangular shape for the lock insert [NB: usually a through hole on the side indicates that the font has been used as a trough or similar, but that does not seem to be the case here].