Torre / São Salvador da Torre

Baptismal font made of fine-grained granite and consisting of an octagonal basin with plain sides and a tall underbowl chamfer, raised on a moulded pedestal base also octagonal; there is a square indentation on one of the basin sides, a common place to place the lock for the font cover in this area of Portugal. The font is relatively modern, 16th-17th century at the earliest. According to the records in the Arquivo Distrital Viana do Castelo [http://digitarq.advct.dgarq.gov.pt/details?id=1071003] [accessed 6 April 2012] the Benedictine monastery here was founded by count Paio Bermudes in the late-9th or early-10th century. The monastery itself appears to have folded towards the end of the 16th century, the church remaining as parochial. [NB: we have no information on the earlier font of the medieval church].