Zuurbemde / Suerbempde

The present font in this church is 19th-century, listed and illustrated in BALaT KIK-IRPA [https://balat.kikirpa.be/object/5517] [accessed 13 January 2024]. A baptismal font was reported as noteworthy in 1599, according to Alex Laermans in the Pastorale Zone Glabbeek (2008) [https://www.kerkglabbeek.be/kerken-en-kapelletjes-zuurbemde-sint-catharinakerk] [accessed 13 January 2024]; the same source states that the font was still in place in 1619 but disappeared since. [NB: not known whether the font reported in 1599 [cf. supra] was the original from the medieval church here]. A communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 18 July 2023) includes a description and drawing of a re-constructed font from J. Gooris' De Romaanse doopvont van Zuurbemde (2006), in which the author speculates about the remains of what may have been a Romanesque font made of Huy stone. As Pol Herman notes (ibid.), the three-head design shown in the drawing is unlikely: "It seems that the fragments have not survived the Second World War. It was an unusual font with only 3 heads ? Or has a mistake been made when re-assembling the fragments for the purpose of creating a drawing? I am searching for more information, without much hope."