Jabbeke No. 1 / Jabeca / Jabecah

The baptismal font in the present church is dated from 1875; its brass font cover from 1843. A communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 8 April 2023) describes and illustrates a font basin in the Loppem Castle near Zedelgem: "Yesterday, I visited the Loppem Castle at Zedelgem-Loppem [https://www.kasteelvanloppem.be/en]. The castle is interesting because of its history, its furniture and its art collection. Since last month, for the first time, visitors are allowed to visit 'Le Petit Musée'. This is a house that dates from 1865, standing in the park and that was originally used as a repair workshop and private museum. Only the courtyard can be visited. The Petit Musée was built to assist the ambitions of the baron's young son, who had an interest in history and archaeology from an early age. The boy traveled to the surrounding villages to save old artifacts, often on the occasion of the demolition of medieval churches that were replaced by larger neo-Gothic buildings. His lapidarium, the collection of stone works of art that he has brought together, is exhibited in the courtyard. There is, among other things, the basin of a 14th century sandstone gothic baptismal font believed to have stood in the Sint-Blasius church of Jabbeke. This is what the curator of the museum wrote to me: 'How that baptismal font ended up in the castel of Loppem is a special story. The reason was indeed the demolition of the church of Jabbeke in 1871. Joseph van Caloen (1853-1932), the eldest son of Charles van Caloen and Savina de Gourcy Serainchamps (who commissioned the construction of the neo-Gothic castle of Loppem), as a young man, was completely captivated by 'Christian archaeology' (l'archéologie Chrétienne), more particularly the study of medieval Gothic and Romanesque architecture and applied arts. For example, since 1870 he was a board member of the Société Archéologique of Bruges, which was committed to the establishment of the Gruuthusemuseum, which also built up an interesting collection of stone art objects. However, Joseph van Caloen also collected for his own account and brought all kinds of stone 'finds' with his donkey cart, mainly from the demolition of churches and other buildings in the region. In 1872, for example, he managed to get his hands on the basin of the Gothic baptismal font of Jabbeke. (See Packo Luc, Kerkgeschiedenis van Jabbeke, 1999, pp. 72-74. Joseph van Caloen housed his 'archaeological' collection in his 'petit musée', a building that also served as a workshop and a “chalet d'étude”. That collection is still kept on site under the covered patio of this building in the castle park of Loppem.'" Further in Pol Herman's communication [cf. supra]: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Blasiuskerk_(Jabbeke) The church was first mentioned in 988. In 1128, a new Romanesque church was built. In April 1869 it was decided to demolish this church with its gothic choir (1390). A new neogothic church would be built on the same place. In 1871, the demolition of the old church began. On January 2, 1872, the first foundations for the new church were dug. The new neogothic font dates from 1875, the brass lid from 1843 [...] Probably at that time the old gothic font must have been moved to a farm where its basin was used as a feed trough for pigs. There it was later found by Charles Deceuninck, vicar at Jabbeke from 1866 to 1874, who made a drawing of it, after which it ended up in the collection of the castle. This type of font is rare in Belgium. The font of Chièvres could be similar. External diameter : 97 cm. Diameter of internal bowl : 66 cm. Height basin : 36 cm". The basin has no cover now but there are two holes drilled in the upper rim for the anchorings of a former cover. A further communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 20 April 2023) adds: "After my visit to the Loppem Castle, I advised the curator to contact the Belgian Geological Service of the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Science [cf. ImagesArea] Following information is interesting: - the basin is made of Marquise sandstone from quarries in the French villages of Marquise, Rinxent or Réty. It could be unique in Belgium. - taking into account the period of operation of these quarries, the font must date from the 13th or 14th century. The usual dating of the font (15th century), as displayed in the museum, is not correct. - the inside of the basin is covered with a lime precipitation. This could be the result of long exposure to animal feed. - the corrosion of the underside of the basin is possibly due to placement on the wet ground, in contact with animal manure, which dissolves the lime cement and facilitates cracking - therefore, the font must have been in use at the pork farm for a long time, that cannot correspond to the short period between the demolition of the gothic church (in 1871) and its find at the farm and transfer to the museum (around 1874). It is therefore my personal hypothesis that the font dates from the period of 1390, when the gothic choir was built and the tower was raised. And that is was removed after the fire in 1595, when the church was damaged by Calvinistic robber gangs from Ostend or Nieuwpoort that terrorized the area before the siege of Ostend (1601-1604). No proof !"