Zoelen No. 2 / Soelen

The entry for this building in the Rijksmonumentenregister [https://monumentenregister.cultureelerfgoed.nl/monumenten/513775] [accessed 3 November 2021] reports: "Boven de doorgang in de zuidgevel bevindt zich een hardstenen wapensteen met wapen van Verstolk, en onder het venster rechts daarvan is een l4de-eeuws hardstenen doopvont ingemetseld, thans dienstdoende als bloembak" [i.e., beneath the window of the south side of the gatehouse is the basin of a stone baptismal font of the 14th century serving as a flower planter]. The object appears to be a fragment of a font basin, approximately half of the whole, cut vertically, each of the four visible sides decorated with a human head [which would an unusual of eight heads for the whole octagonal the basin. Pol Herman, who informed BSI of this object, reckons that the other half may be elsewhere, but it is not one of two fragments in the museum Oudheidkamer voor Tiel en Omstreken [e-mails of 27 October 2021 and 5 March 2022 received from Pol Herman]: "Concerning the presence of baptismal fonts at the castle of Soelen, I can give following additional information: "In the times of the reformation, the lord of the castle was Dirk Vijgh, who held influential positions in the city of Tiel and in the surrounding villages. He was called “the king of Tiel”. He also was an early and staunch Calvinist. Among other initiatives that he took, in 1575 he forced the city of Tiel and its neighbouring villages to adopt the reformation. It is said that he embellished his freshly restored castle (it was destroyed related to an attack by the Spaniards in 1574) with the art objects of the catholic churches, maybe to brag and boast the victory over the Catholics. When the Oudheidkamer museum of Tiel was created, in 1902, the owner of the castle of Soelen donated 3 baptismal fonts to the museum (among other liturgical objects). One complete font, and two halves of fonts that were sawn in two. You can recognize these two halve fonts laying on the floor on annexed old picture of the museum [cf. ImagesArea]. Neither seem to correspond with the 8-headed font. There is no trace (yet) at all of the “complete font”. The museum was totally destroyed by an English bombardment at the end of the second world war. The content was lost, anyway nobody remembers what happened to the fonts. However, in the Sint Martinus church of Tiel there is (or was ?) yet another (half ?) font. [cf. BSI entry for Tiel]. Nobody seems to know where it is today. The church was destroyed in the second world war. Because of the information that I asked them, the museum Oudheidkamer of Tiel has started an inquiry on all these fonts."