Liège - Collégiale Saint-Barthélemy

The Collegiate Church of St. Bartholomew, was part of a convent, founded outside the city walls of Liège. The building process started in the 11th century. The church got enlarged, altered and modified over the centuries.

Inside the Collégiale Saint-Barthélemy, now a parish church, is this baptismal font, a medieval masterpiece and icon of the "mosan art", a Romanesque style, that developed around the Meuse valley. The center was the Bishopric of Liège, but it spread to Aachen (= Aix-la-Chapelle), Maastricht and even Cologne.

The font was commissioned around 1107 by Abbé Hellin for the church of Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts, the baptistery of Liege at that time. It was completed by 1118 and is attributed to Renier de Huy, mentioned in a Liège chronicle as "Reinerus aurifaber".

This church was destroyed during the French Revolution. At that time the font was hidden. When it was finally moved into the Collegiate Church of St. Bartholomew, it was incomplete. The cover and two of the 12 supporting oxen were lost.

During the early 12th century the area around the Meuse Valley was known for its metalworks. The technique "Reinerus aurifaber" used here is known as lost-wax casting.

The complete font was sculpted in wax first. Two moulds (inner and outer) from refractory clay then cover the wax-model completeley, before hot bronze is poured between the two moulds. The wax melts - and get replaced by the bronze that cools down and hardens.