Paray-le-Monial

An object noted and illustrated in Medieval mrugala [http://medieval.mrugala.net/Architecture/France,_Saone-et-Loire,_Paray-le-Monial,_Basilique_du_Sacre-Coeur/index.php?page=2] [accessed 28 November 2025] as "fonds [sic] baptismaux" Noted and illustrated in Guy Lerdung [https://guy-lerdung.e-monsite.com/album/patrimoine/patrimoine-religieux/france/eglises-romanes-1/eglises-romanes-du-brionnais/paray-le-monial-basilique-du-sacre-coeur/paray-le-monial-basilique-du-sacre-coeur-1/] [accessed 28 November 2025]: "Absidiole nord, la chapelle des fonts baptismaux [...] Fonts baptismaux datant de 1500". There are two objects that appear to be of related design in this church: the one noted above looks more like a cloister fountain consisting of a large round basin with a raised sculptural piece in its centre, much like one of the cloister fountains found in some large medieval abbeys; there appears to be an inscription on the sides of this centre piece, below a pattern of floral and foliated motifs; the outer sides of the large basin are decorated with multiple motifs and symbols; on one side is a bulging demi-angel holding a charged shield, now decapitated and otherwise damaged; other bulges appear to be animals in different positions; between them are busy patterns of foliage motifs, one of them badly damaged, almost entirely missing. The suggested date in one of the sources mentioned [cf. supra] may be correct. The second related object is located in the baptiery chapel, and isprobably the baptismal font proper, or at least used as one; it has three clustered basins, each of them with a cover; they are roughly hemispherical in shape and decorated with a band of floral motifs all around; each basin is raised on a detached moulded pedestal base and there is an additional central shaft, polygonal and decorated with a fluted pattern, in the centre of the cluster; above, atop the cluster of basins, is a very tall angel sculpture. This second item appears to be modern, 19th- or 20th-century.