Vizela Santo Adriao / Santo Adriao de Vizela / Santo Adrião de Riba-Vizela / Santo Adrião de Vizela / Vizela Santo Adrião

Image copyright © Joost Limburg, 2011
Standing permission
Results: 9 records
B01: design element - patterns - geometric
B02: inscription?
B03: design element - patterns - geometric
BU01: human figure - 3 - male and female? - dancing?
view of basin - underbowl - detail
view of church exterior - south view
view of font - front side
view of font - right side
INFORMATION
FontID: 17916VIZ
Church/Chapel: Igreja de Santo Adrião [aka Igreja Matriz de Santo Adrião]
Church Patron Saints: St. Adrian
Church Location: Travessa da Igreja, 4815-672 Santo Adrião Vizela
Country Name: Portugal
Location: Braga, Norte
Directions to Site: Located in the municipality of Vizela
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese do Porto
Font Location in Church: Inside the church [cf. FontNotes]
Century and Period: 12th century, Romanesque
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Joost Limburg, of www.romanicoportugal.org, for his photographs of this font
Font Notes: Click to view font notes
Baptismal font made of coarse granite and consistsing of an irregular [partly polygonal; partly rounded and unfinished] round basin with a tall underbowl, both decorated, although the carving only covers between 1/2 and 2/3 of the surface, leving the 'back' unfinished; the basin has several geometric patterns on the sides, and a quadrangular patch cut out for the location of the cover lock; on one of the sides an inscription has been identified in some local sources, supposedly reading "f. 1100 a."; there is damage to the extreme right side of the carved area of the upper rim; the underbowl chamfer has three figures in what appears to be a dancing position: the one in the centre appears female and wears a long dress or skirt; the figure on the right, also in a dancing position, appears male, with an exagerated penis; the figure on the left appears male as well, but is in a running or falling position; to the right are a couple of bulges that may be the remains of a broken off figure or an unidentified motif; the basin stands on a plain cylindrical pedestal base. The SIPA [Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico] archive has a B&W photograph [ref.: SIPA FOTO.0057892] of the font, taken in 1949, that shows the font embedded in a niche or alcove of the church. This collocation of the font is consistent with the unifinished surface of the back of the font, and may have been the original position in the medieval church. The font and the carvings on it match similar existing work dated in the 12th century. The 1949 photograph shows the font provided with a flat polygonal cover that is secured to tghe front of the basin with a large square lock of the kind often found in this area of Portugal. The Camara Municipal de Vizela [www.cm-vizela.pt/index.php?/concelho/freguesias] [accessed 17 February 2012] notes: "A Igreja Paroquial também foi românica. Já pouco resta do primitivo estilo [...] No interior, há uma pia baptismal, um tanto retocada com uma talha barroca tardia".
COORDINATES
UTM: 29T 558848 4579485
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone, granite
Number of Pieces: two
Font Shape: polygonal [irregular] (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: polygonal [irregular]
Drainage Notes: no lining
INSCRIPTION
Inscription Language: Latin?
Inscription Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
Inscription Location: on the side of the basin
Inscription Text: "f. 1110 a."
Inscription Source: unknown / not recorded
LID INFORMATION
Material:
wood,
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]