Aalbeke / Albecca / Albecke / Albeka

INFORMATION

Font ID: 25956AAL
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Font Date: n.d.
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 13th century (?), Romanesque?
Church / Chapel Name: Sint-Corneliuskerk, Aalbeke
Font Location in Church: disappeared
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Cornelius
Church Notes: known in the 12thC as a three-aisled chapel; octagonal crossing tower known in the 13thC; damaged and looted in the 16th and 17thC; modified 1750; destroyed by French revolutionaries in 1794; re-built 1805; choir wall of the Romanesque period discovered in excavations in 2021; church became disused in 2022
Church Address: Albekeplaats 1A, 8511 Kortrijk, Belgium -- Tel.: +32 56 27 75 38
Site Location: West-Vlaanderen / Flandre Occidentale, Vlaanderen / Flandres, Belgium, Europe
Directions to Site: Located off the N43, in the outskirts and municipality, and 5-6 km SW of Kortrijk
Ecclesiastic Region: Bisdom Brugge
Additional Comments: disappeared font (the one from the 12th-13thC church here)
Font Notes:
The present baptismal font of this church is made of red marble and dates probably from 1716; it is listed and illustrated in BALat KIK-IRPA [https://balat.kikirpa.be/object/30009] [accessed 21 November 2024]: "doopvont [...] marmer, koper [...] Date: 1716 (onzeker) - 1716 (onzeker)"; the font consists of a roughly-hemispherical basin decorated with a pronounced scotia below the uppr rim;, raised on a baluster-shaped round pedestal stem and a moulded round-to-square lower base; all in red veined marble. Metal dome-shaped font cover with orbit-and-cross finial. We have no information on the font from the medieval church here.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Pol Herman for bringing this church to our attention and for his help documenting it

COORDINATES

UTM: 31U 516228 5625230
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.778603, 3.230181
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 46′ 42.97″ N, 3° 13′ 48.65″ E