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Idanha-a-Velha , an ancient episcopal see Portuguese from the roman era located in Raya Spanish-Portuguese and half a hundred neighbors, preserves in its church, the early christian baptistery oldest of the Iberian Peninsula , according to research carried out by experts from the universities of Vigo, Coruña and Coimbra, and published in the “journal of Archaelogical and Anthropological Sciences”.
Pedro Carvalho, professor of the faculty of Letters of the University Portuguese of Coimbra (UC), explained to Efe that it is an ancient baptismal pool , typical of the roman era, when more than baptismal fonts, as there are now, they were water tanks.
” The baptism was done by immersion , so the pool of a square meter, it had three stairs to enter and another three to exit,” explained the professor.
The battery, that was discovered during some excavations fifty years ago, has been dating thanks to techniques physical-chemical and archaeological. After crossing the data of physical-chemical analysis and tests of carbon with the mortar and pestle and the mortar, the scientific study determined that it is a baptistery of the second half of the fourth century .
According to Carvalho, “this is the baptistery, the most ancient of the iberian peninsula”..
In the historic center of Barcelona , reminded the professor, there is another baptistery of the same era, dated generically in the fourth century.
The town of Idanha-a-Velha , located next to the Spanish border to the province of Cáceres, was a important episcopal seat between the centuries IV and V , although to day of today is very unpopulated.
On his cathedral in ruins was built the current St. Mary’s church , in which there is another baptistery similar dated on the v century.
