Temple Church baptismal font - Inner Temple (London) - Stone Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

The depicted beautiful limestone baptismal font, a replica of the old Norman work from the end of the 11th century, You can find in famous Temple Church in London's Inner Temple.

The waymarked finely carved limestone (Beer stone) baptismal font is nowhere near as old as it appears. It was carved in the 1840s as a replica of the medieval Norman font in St. Michael's Church in Alphington (Devon).

The original font in St. Michael's Church is Norman, dated to about 1100, and decorated with interfaced arches, scroll ornaments and figures over the arches. On the southeast side are two panels showing St. Michael attacking a dragon with a lance or arrow. This is quite an unusual subject for a font and these two panels are possibly the reason why the church was dedicated to St. Michael. On the left of St. Michael is what is thought to be a large cat. Continuing to move left, the next panel represents an eagle; an eagle is often carved on fonts, as it is symbolic of baptism. The old story goes that when the eagle becomes old and his wings hang down and his sight is failing he floats high in the air and scorches his wings in the heat of the sun. After this he dips himself three times in a fountain of clear water and becomes young again.

The magnificent Romanesque-Gothic Temple church was built by the secretive Knights Templar, an order of crusading monks founded in the 12th century to protect pilgrims travelling to and from Jerusalem. The Temple Church has a distinctive design and is in two parts: the Romanesque Round (consecrated in 1185 and modelled after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem) adjoins the Gothic Chancel (built in 1240), which is the heart of the modern church. Both parts were severely damaged by a bomb in 1941 and have been completely reconstructed.