Hardoye in Rocquigny / La Hardoye

Baptismal font of bluish limestone consisting of a square table-top basin with a round inner well, the corner spandrels of the upper surface decorated with well-rendered palmette foliage; the sides are problematic to identify, as the basin is now built into a corner and two of them are totally inaccessible; a third is covered by a wooden board that allows only a peak at what appears to be a pattern of roundels of acanthus vine with fruit; the one side that is wholly visible has a blind arcade of five round arches on columns with capitals and bases; the underbowl is rounded, with corner capitals that would engage four angle colonnettes; the central support is round and broad, as expected in this type of table-top font design; there were two metal staples in the upper surface of the basin, in the corcle around the well opening, but one is now missing, with a chunk of the stone it has has broken off; part of the original 5-support base is now missing The carving of the motifs is of excellent quality. There is no font cover present. Listed in Palissy [ref.: PM08000263]: "Cuve carrée en pierre bleue sculptée aux quatre faces ornées. motif d'inspiration végétale stylisée orne les écoinçons de la face supérieure [...] 12e siècle". The Portail du patrimoine culturel, Site de Champagne-Ardenne, Region Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine (2013) [Église+paroissiale+Saint-Urbain] [accessed 11 June 2016] states that the nave is 17th-century, with a later chancel: "La nef de l'église Saint-Urbain semble avoir été édifiée au 17e siècle et le choeur au 19e siècle"; it does not mention a font in it, but one of the illustrations in this dossier, a 2011 photograph [ref.: IVR21_20130867426NUC2A] by Maya Bennani, shows west view of the nave, which shows a partial view of the basin of this font.