Dalhem nr. Liège

Baptismal font listed and illustrated in BALaT KIK-IRPA [https://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10111235] [accessed 10 February 2024]: "fonts baptismaux [...] Cuve cantonnée de têtes humaines, XVIe siècle, sur chapiteau du XVIe siècle remployéé. Base du XIXe siècle [...] hauteur: 77 cm" [NB: height does not include the lower base]. As indicated above the font is a composite of three blocks of different periods. The wooden cover is round and plain, hinged in its middle; modern. A communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 21 September 2023) informs: "A castle with its castral chapel was built here in the late 11thC by Count Palatine Hermann II of Lotharingia, both destroyed in 1465; replaced by another church in the 15th century, of which little is known about its exterior appearance. It was elevated to a parish church (Saint-Pancras) in 1618. After its capture and total destruction by the Dutch in 1648, the castle itself was not rebuilt. In 1714, the ecclesiastical building which replaced the castle chapel in the 15th century was supplanted by a new tower which is still part of the current church. The current church of Dalhem exists since 1829. The basin of the baptismal font is said to be 16th century. Lacking the octagonal shape, and with its four heads that rested on lost colonnettes, it still has some characteristics of an older Mosan style. It is not Romanesque, but maybe it can be considered early-gothic."