Frumales / Frunmales

A news release in [https://www.publico.es/publico-tv/publico-al-dia/programa/914040/el-inventario-del-pazo-de-meiras-la-lista-de-los-bienes-que-los-franco-pretenden-quedarse] [accessed 2 February 2021] raised the issue of a number of patrimony treasures in the hands of the Franco famliy in the mansion used by the dictator and his family until 2008. Among them is a baptismal font claimed to be from Frumales, a village in the Segovia province. An article by Sara Cabrero published 31 January 2021 in La Voz de Galicia [www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/galicia/2021/01/30/pueblo-segovia-descubre-meiras-pila-desaparecida-1958/00031612023174872290132.htm] [accessed 2 February 2021] reports the discovery in the Pazo de Meirás of a Romanesque baptismal font claimed to have been taken from its church in Frumales in 1958 by Carmen Polo de Franco, wife of the Spanish dictator. The web site [http://tierradepinares.es/pdf/frumales.pdf] [accessed 2 February 2021] reports a baptismal font of the Gothic period and a holy-water stoup probably of the 16th century: "La pila bautismal, situada a los pies de la nave de la epístola, es una sencilla pieza caliza, de vaso hemisférico liso, de cronología gótica. [...] una pila aguabenditera semiesférica, decorada con gallones helicoidales y soportada por una columnilla, elemento que nos parece del siglo XVI." According to Cuellar7.com [http://cuellar7.com/como-se-llevaron-la-pila-bautismal-de-la-iglesia-de-frumales/123329/] [accessed 2 February 2021] the older font was already disused in the rectory yard [="se encontraba en el patio de la antigua casa del cura de la localidad"] at the time of its removal; then the font was removed by soldiers in an army truck [="como la esposa del dictador llegó en un Seat 1.500 negro, bajo la ventanilla del vehículo para repartir caramelos a los niños y después la pila fue cargada por militares en un camión del Ejército"]. The present font [cf. supra] consists of a roughly hemispherical basin with plain sides mounted on a short circular pedestal base. No cover present but the upper rim retains a pair of metal staples from an earlier cover. The baptismal font in the dictator's family mansion [which is in the process of being returned to the municipality to which it belongs] is illustrated in an article by Florentino Descalzo in the 1 February 2021 digital edition of El Adelantado [www.eladelantado.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/14_1-pila-frumales.jpg] [accessed 2 February 2021], a roughly hemispherical basin decorated with a broad moulding at the rim and at least one large cross on its side; it is raised on a squat quadrangular base which appears to be of modern granite; no cover present. [NB: the sources consulted state that there is no documentary evidence/proof that the font now [2021] at the Gallegan Pazo be the one originally from Frumales, but that there is considerable witness evidence of its removal by the dictator's wife in 1958].