baptismal font

MAC GIR-041644

Object type baptismal font

Fabric Medieval construction and architectural stone material

Culture/period

Materials stone

Technique stone carving

Mint

Production date 1550

Museum Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Girona

Current location MASPG

Archaeological site Sant Pere de Galligants

Township Girona (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Girona, Gironès)

Dimensions 1009 x 980 mm

Description

The baptismal font from Sant Pere de Galligants is made of limestone and has twelve faces, six of which are smooth, and on the other six we can see the date 15 - 50, alternated with two shields. One of the shields with an empty field, displays the tiara and the keys of St Peter, owing to the invocation of the monastery, and the other has a knife and a folded skin in the field. This last shield allows us to know who had offered and funded the font: tanners, of a significant presence in the Burgh de Sant Pere and who had the headquarters of their brotherhood in the neighbouring church of Sant Nicolau. The base and foot of the font are decorated with vegetal and geometric motifs. The church of Sant Pere de Galligants, in addition to serving for the functions of a monastic church, was the parish church of the Burgh de Sant Pere, although most of the parish functions were carried out in Sant Nicolau. Baptisms and funerals, however, were held in the monastery church. Baptisteries were usually a closed chapel, with a stone wall or with railings, where the baptismal font was located very close to the entrance of the churches, on the left side. In Sant Pere de Galligants it was located just where there is now a space used for the Museum's shop, at the end of the left side nave, very close to the current location of the font.

Omeka ID 3231