Ribas nr. Celorico de Basto

A broken baptismal font is kept outside, near the church here; the font consists of a roughly hemispherical basin raised on a cylindrical pedestal base; the main damage affects the basin, broken diagonally down the side, folowing the line of the separation that splits the inner basin into two compartments, one of them with a drain hole; there is also damage to the base, where the two blocks of stone meet, but this could be simply a loss of the cement that kept the two together. The font is exposed to the elements now and covered in liquens. The design incorporating a divided inner bowl with a shallow half would indicate a date in the 17th century or later. There is a decorative pattern on the outer sides of the basin. The SIPA entry for this church [www.monumentos.pt/Site/APP_PagesUser/SIPA.aspx?id=9035] [accessed 30 April 2013] notes two fonts in it: an old damaged font of round basin, in very poor state, located in the outer enclosure , towards the back of tha church [="adro, murado, onde se encontra a antiga pia baptismal [...] de taça circular, fracturada e em mau estado de conservação, junto à fachada posterior da igreja"]; and a modern replica of the old font, located by the chancel arch, north side [="No interior da igreja encontra-se uma réplica da pia baptismal, colocada junto ao arco triunfal, do lado do Evangelho"]. [NB: a 1974 B&W photograph of the church interior shows a font (the modern replica?) located at the west end, north side, beneath the western gallery [SIPA, ibid.)]. [NB: we have no information on its earlier font].