Saint-Maurice No. 2 / Agaune / Agaunum

According to the parish brief history [www.paroisse-stmaurice.ch/index.php/en/St-Maurice/63-eglstsigismond] [accessed 25 April 2014] the church made up from the crypt of the abbey passed on to the bishop of Sion and became parochial ["L'église, désormais appelée Saint-Sigismond, passe sous le contrôle de l'évêque de Sion et devient le centre paroissial de la ville."] It must then have had a baptismal font, but there is further indformation from this same source related to baptisms at Saint-Maurice; it appears that baptisms may had been carried out at the abbey until 1610 but, when the abbey [and its font?] were badly damaged by one of the many landslides it has suffered, the bishop offered the infant villagers the possibility of being baptised in either place ["Dès 1615. Edification des fonts baptismaux à Saint-Sigismond, sur ordre de l'évêque, suite à la destruction de l'Abbatiale par un éboulement en 1610. Désormais les Agaunois auront le choix entre les deux églises pour leurs baptêmes."] The present font, the basin of which could be the one introduced in the early-17th century, consists of an octagonal basin with a rounded underbowl, raised on a round moulded stem with square volumes at top and bottom; the base looks like a later addition. The metal font cover is also modern; octagonal and flat, with a carved top and a stylised finial; it is hinged to the upper rim of the basin.