Surieu No. 2 / Saint-Romain / Saint-Romain-de-Surieu

There are two objects of our interest in the church now: the basin of a fonr and a holy-water stoup; the font is odd-shaped as it was obviously designed to fit into a square corner, therefore it has round basin within a half a square, the two sides of the latter unfinished/rough and intended to fit against a corner, leaving the round outer side of the basin extant; it is now raised on a modern pedestal base; hard to date but may be medieval or late-medieval. This object is illustrated in a digital photograph taken 3 August 2021 by Brunodumaine and can be seen in Wikimedia [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Église_Saint-Romain_de_Surieu_01.jpg] [accessed 20 September 2025], captioned: "baptistère de l'église Saint-Romain de Surieu". The stoup itself consists of a square basin with tapering sides and wide chamfered corners giving it an octagonal appearance; it is raised on a square pedestal base; it appears to be much later in date than the font. This stoup is illustrated in a digital photograph taken 3 August 2021 by Brunodumaine and can be seen in Wikimedia [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Église_Saint-Romain_de_Surieu_02.jpg] [accessed 20 September 2025].
Berthin (1838) writes: "Le village de Surieu forme, dans le canton de Roussillon, une section de la commune de St-Romain", and refers to Chorier's 'Histoire générale du Dauphiné' of 1661, where it is stated that Atenulphe "Seigneur de Tullins,& Agnes sa Femme, Ponce, surnommé Hector, & Hugues, Fils de Bournon" restored several churches, including those of "S Romain" and "Surieu" to the Abbaye S. Pierre de Vienne in 1091. Berthin (ibid.) further notes that the old church of Surieu was located north of the river Sane -hence the nickname of le-Haut- while St-Romain was located south of the river; Surieu was already a hamlet of Saint-Romain [cf. supra] and would later merge into the present Saint-Romain-de-Surieu. Both churches, therefore, existed separately by the end of the 11th century. Berthin (ibid.) does not have much to say about the old church of Saint-Romain, except that very little remains of the original construction, a few heads built into the new façade and the hlf-columns that support the chancel arch. If there was a font in it, no mention is made of it.