Martigny-Ville No. 2 / Martinach / Martiniacum

The Parish web site [www.paroissemartigny.ch] [accessed 24 April 2014] informs that the present baptismal font is from 1684, a date inscribed on it. The font consists of an octagonal basin with a broad flat moulding at the top and a rounded underbowl, raised on a baluster-shaped pedestal bace and a moulded lower base, both also octagonal. The font is either made of a very dark, almost black stone, or has been painted that colour all over. The font cover is of the rim-buffet type common in the Valais churches; lower volume is octagonal, made of wood with panels carved with Church fathers, apostles or saints, the arrises with foliated motifs, the cornices moulded; upper volume is an octagonal canopy supported on eiht torsade columns, housing a baptism of Christ scene, the large finial including cherubs a demi-figure [God the Father? Christ?]