Oyten

The font in this church is noted and illustrated in Vogeltränke und Zankapfel [https://www.kreiszeitung.de/lokales/verden/oyten-ort54165/byzantinischer-taufstein-petri-oyten-thema-februar-kirchenfuehrung-4721149.html] [accessed 28 June 2025], with reference to its origin in the church of Achim [cf. BSI entry]; it further speculates on the possible earlier origins of the font, but what if chrystall clear is the the two halves of the font belong in two different worlds; The square basin of the Oyten font with the inscription on the sides is modern, but its underbowl was carved to match the shape of the medieval base from Achim: four colonnettes clustered around central shaft; this base matches exactly the underbowl of the medieval basin at Achim.
A communication from Pol Herman (e-mail of 27 June 2025) relates the moves and actions related to the medieval font originally from Achim [cf BSI entry]; it summarises information from several web sources to note the details of the eventful life of the 13th-century font at Achim which, as stated below, ended up with the basin in Achim and the original base at Oyten: "The Achim church was first documented in 1257 by Gerhard II, Bishop of Bremen. However, there are indications that the church is older. A dedication inscription in the tower, difficult to decipher, could indicate the year of construction in 1091. The late Romanesque baptismal font from the 13th century is the oldest piece of the interior furnishings. In the years around 1850, baptisms increasingly took place in the Achim parish hall or in families' homes, and it was considered that the font in the church was superfluous. It was auctioned to the highest bidder and purchased by the then sexton, Heinrich Rosenbrock (1830-1865), who placed it in his garden as a birdbath. After the church was built in Oyten, Rosenbrock donated the stone to the Oyten parish in 1861. In 1939, Achim reclaimed the font. The parishes agreed: the old base remained in Oyten. Gustav Ulrich from Bremen designed a new font in the form of a square cover plate with the inscription: "Let the little children come to me." The historic font was sold back to Achim, where it rests on a new base. The Achim baptismal font is similar in its ornamentation and design to the baptismal fonts in neighboring churches in Verden, Heiligenfelde, Riede, and Kirchtimke. Together, they form an isolated local group of similar objects."