Wessem

[NB: our attempts to document the font at Wessem have resulted in somewhat confusing results. The sources below speak of a baptismal font of which only a round basin decorated with a moulding at the upper rim and four cherub heads on the sides; a 1948 photograph of the ruins of the church interior shows one such object perched on one of the column base stumps in the nave. A similar description is given of the basin of the present font in the Kerkgebouwen in Limburg entry for this church [cf. infra]. Another source [cf. infra] reports a fragment containing a human head in the Limburg Museum, referring to its original font as "1000-year-old". Pol Herman's communication to BSI confirs that the 1948 photographed mentioned above shows "the present-day 17th century basin, put down on the base of a disappeared pilar]. Schönlank Middeleeuwse doopvonten in Limburg, Maasgouw 118, 1999 notes a fragment of the baptismal font of Wessem (a head of a man with a tight cap), which appears to be kept in the Thermenmuseum in Heerlen. A Facebook entry by Aoje Kraom Daag Wèssem (2017) reports: A piece of 1000-year-old baptismal font from Wessem had disappeared without a trace for years. But they found it. It was just in the Limburg Museum. The entry for this church in Kerkgebouwen in Limburg [https://www.kerkgebouwen-in-limburg.nl/kerken/wessem/medardus] [accessed 20 January 2022] notes: "Doopvont, hardsteen, koper, XVII (voet en stam ouder). Vierkant basement met op de hoeken de basementen van een zuiltje, cilindervormige zware stam, ronde kuip met aan de bovenzijde een ingesnoerde rand en versierd met vier cherubijnenkopjes. Geprofileerd spits toelopend deksel waarop bol met kruisje. Deksel XX. Geen foto beschikbaar." A further communication from Pol Herman (e-mail of 11 January 2022) includes an e-mail and photograph from Jean-Claude Ghislain showing that the lower base of the earlier font has also survived and is used beneath the 17th-century basin, but the stem appears modern:: "La base romane de Wessem, dont une moitié est conservée, subsiste en l'église de Wessem [...] Jean-Claude Ghislain"