Maastricht No. 7 / Maestricht

The fragments of an early-Gothic baptismal font found in 1927 during excavation works in the Breulingstraat at Maastricht are now [2016+] in the Bonnafontenmuseum in Maastricht (one of the four heads is missing). The reconstructed basin of a font believed to be originally from this church is displayed now [2016] at the Bonnefantenmuseum of Maastricht [https://www.bonnefanten.nl/en/collection/1004053-doopvont-met-drie-maskerkoppen-maskaron-afkomstig-uit-de-st-mathiaskerk-te-maastricht] [accessed 16 December 2021]; it is of a common design and made of Mosan (?) stone, roughly hemispherical in shape, with three [had four, one missing] human heads protruding at 90-degree angles of the upper rim. The original base is lost and the basin is displayed mounted on a plain quadrangular block. There appear to be two later fonts in this church now; a wooden font of 1707 originally in the nearby Catharinakapel, and a 19th-century large marble font with a metal dome cover. In a communication to BSI (e-mail of 15 December 2021) Pol Herman notes that when the Saint Matthias Church was given to the Protestants in the seventeenth century, the Chapel of Saint Catherine became the new Catholic parish church. No doubt the baptismal font was then transferred. In the year 1707 a new baptismal font was entered in the Chapel of Saint Catherine, and the old one was shattered for its unsightly appearance (destructo antiquo ob ejus vilitam). It is therefore not impossible that the fragments found are from that destroyed baptismal font. The fragments of the early gothic baptismal font were found in 1927 during excavation works in the Breulingstraat at Maastricht.