Forua nr. Guernica

Results: 2 records

inscription

view of church exterior

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 2 March 2008 by Txo [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Forua_Iglesia_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn.JPG] [accessed 3 January 2012]

Copyright Instructions: released by the author into the public domain

INFORMATION

FontID: 17825FOR
Church/Chapel: Iglesia Parroquial de San Martín
Church Patron Saints: St. Martin of Tours
Country Name: Spain
Location: Vizcaya / Bizkaia, País Vasco / Euskadi
Directions to Site: Located in the Busturialdea, just N of Guernica, 35 km from Bilbao
Font Location in Church: In the porch of the church
Century and Period: 1st - 2nd century (?), Hispano-Roman
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Daniel Garcia Cuesta for bringing this stoup to our attention
Church Notes: the church is said to date originally to the late-11th or early-12th century; stoup known since the 19th century (?); new excavations and renovation of the church carried out in 2010; church reopened November 2010
A red-marble Roman altar recycled as holy-water stoup in the parish church of Forua is reported in Barandiaríán (1932). Studied in Fernández Palacios (2004): the altar was known by 1906, when it was written about; the altar appears to have been dedicated to an indigenous divinity; it had been discovered in an area owned by the Franciscans , and was turned into a holy-water stoup at the parish church of St. Martin of Forua, located in its porch, to the left of the main entrance. This source identifies the material as a red marble of local extraction [="mármol rojo de Ereño"] and gives a transcription of the inscription in square capitals on it. [NB: a Roman settlement here is said to date from the mid-1st century; Fernández Palacios (ibid.) dates the altar in the late 1st or early 2nd century A.D. -- it is quite likely that the excavations that led to the 1906 publications on this altar took place some years earlier, in the 18th century].

COORDINATES

UTM: 30T 4798130 526346

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, marble (red) [local, from nearby Ereño]

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Latin
Inscription Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
Inscription Text: "IVILIAE SACRVM / M CAECILIVS MON / TANVS PRO SALV / TE FVSCI FILI / SVI POSVIT / QVNO. FECI

REFERENCES

Barandiaríán, José Miguel de, "Paralelo entre lo histórico y lo actual en el País Vasco: investigaciones en Balzola y en Gibijo", 12 (1932), Anuario de Eusko-Folklore, 1932, pp. 99-110; r["References"]
Fernández Palacios, Fernando, "Comentarios de epigrafía vizcaína romana y la municipalización en el territorio de la actual Euskadi", 22, no.2 (2004), Gerión, 2004, pp. 479-492; r["References"]