Idol's Fountain
Encyclopedia
The Fountain of the Idol is a Roman
fountain
located in the civil parish
of São José de São Lázaro
, in the municipality of Braga
, northern Portugal
. Located in the former territory of the Callaici Bracari, the granite rock fountain/spring has several inscriptions in the Celtic language
, dedicated to the Gallaecian and Lusitanian god
s Tongoenabiagus
and Nabia
(built during era of Roman Emperor
Augustus
).
By 1695, the land on which the fountain is located was owned by Father Santos Rodrigues, vicar of São João de Castelões, in Guimarães. On his death, his property passed to his niece, D. Angélica de Barros, who later bequeathed it to her brother-in-law Vicente Gomes do Couto.
In the 18th century, the accountant D.
Jerónimo Contador de Argote, noted in his records: "behind the church of São João Marcos is a garden, that is called "Idol", in which is located a deep spring, which has a rock, which appears to be live rock, with a figure in long robes, that is five palms [in size]: it looks like [the figure] has a long bear, and part of his body is missing; his right hand is broken and on the left the form of a envolotório, and above the head there are letters..." Jerónimo recounts with this detail description, a design of the fountain of the Idol that was first created by the Bishop of Urianópolis, Alves de Figueire.
Domingos Fernandes da Silva attempted to acquire the lands judicially, under the pre-text that the lands were part of his property in 1816.
On 6 August 1861, Emílio Hübner visited the garden of the Idol, informed that name of the divinity was obscured by lime, and attempted to correct the inscription, following the notes of D. Jerónimo.
A year later, King Pedro V
and the marquess of Sousa examine the fountain, then offered to the monarch as a gift by its owner João de Abreu Guedes do Couto. The King wanted to remove it and install it on the grounds of Quinta dos Falcões, as a base of a lapidary museum, but desisted.
Around the 1870s, the fountain was sold to Luís do Amaral Ferreira, then known as o Alemão (the German), but later passed into the hands of Maria do Carmo Sousa, wife of Luís do Amaral Ferreira 8in 1875). By the 1890s, the fountain was the property of José Joaquim de Oliveira, who married Maria do Carmo Sousa.
By 1894, José Leite de Vasconcelos
visited the Idol's garden, and completed a study of the structure (in a letter date 27 March 1894 to Martins Sarmento). Martins Sarmento, for his part, was interested in creating a mould of the fountain for the Museum of the Sociedade Martins Sarmento, in Guimarães. Leite de Vasconcelos returned a year later to Braga, in order to examine the inscriptions, which had by then become covered in lime: he rectified the obscurity of some of the inscription: recarving TONGOE from PONGOE. Leite de Vasconcelos made return visits in 1903 and 1905 to study the fountain further, hypothesizing that the human figure on the left was the religious practitioner and the image within the structure the divinity.
and votive inscription. Subsequent repairs occurred in 1952, while access to the space was developed in 1967.
In 1980-1981, Alain Tranoy, reassessing Leite de Vasconcelos' original hypothesis, suggested that the left figure on the idol was the divinty, while the enclosed figure the practitioner/devotee. Later, António Rodríguez Colmenero defended that the fountain was part of plural sanctuary, and the figures represented the figures of Nabia and Tongo Nabiago.
In 1995, a conservation study of the fountain was undertaken by professors Maria Amélia Sequeiro Braga and Luís Aires de Barros. It was followed in 1999 by an archaeological investigation of the surrounding area, and a 2000-2001, project by architect Paula Silva, in collaboration with Carla Pestana and João Ferreira, to construct a building to preserve the site and act as interpretative centre.
In September 2002, a public tender process offered the project to Casimiro Ribeiro e Filhos, Lda. and CARI-Guimarães. It was followed in 2003 by a formal excavation by the Archaeology department of the Universidade do Minho, coordinated by Francisco Sande Lemos and José Manuel Freitas Leite, with the collaboration of Liliana Sampaio, Sandra Nogueira, Ricardo Silva and Artur Jaime Duarte, who were responsible for the discovering drainage canals and Roman wall structures. At the same time, in 2003, the Universidade do Minho was responsible for cleaning of the rocks and clearing the vegatation, developing a humidity-controlled environment with reception area. On the conclusion of the construction project, in 2004, the site fell under the authority of the DGEMN, the municipal government of Braga, the Universidade do Minho and the D. Diogo de Sousa Regional Museum, through a protocol between the identified parties. In 2005, the municipality of Braga was conceded the operational control of the site for a period of 25 years, and on 11 January 2006 the interpretative pavilion was inaugurated.
The fountain is enclosed in a modernist structure built to protect and act as an interpretive centre, within the historical centre of Braga, near the Palace of Raio and Hospital of São Marcos.
The monument is located outside of the former urban perimeter of Bracara Augusta (modern day Braga), and whose many epigraphic inscriptions permits a clear association between it and the local religious divinity at the time: Tongoenabiagus
, which was associated with the goddess Nabia
in Lusitanian mythology
.
A few indicators suggest that there may have existed, in the same location, another structure, likely a temple to the goddess Nabia (as yet undiscovered). The figure in the toga could represent the godAsclepius
. Francisco Sande Lemos, suggests that the fountain was paired with the sanctuary of Fragas de Panóias in Vila Real, one of the more familiar monuments of Roman rock-art epigraphy
in the Iberia
n northwest.
, while above the same engraving statingwith affection from the great-grandparents.
A comparable stone from the old Chapel of Santana, which once existed near the source of the fountain (and now in the archbishops Palace), with an inscription alluding to the restoration of the structure; the inscription reads "T CAELICVS IPIP FRONT ET M ET LVCIVS TITIPRONEPOTES CAELICI Fronton RENO RVN (VA)", or specifically T. Celico Fronto, and Mark, Tito and Lucio, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Celico Fronto restored.
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
located in the civil parish
Freguesia
Freguesia is the Portuguese term for a secondary local administrative unit in Portugal and some of its former colonies, and a former secondary local administrative unit in Macau, roughly equivalent to an administrative parish. A freguesia is a subdivision of a concelho, the Portuguese synonym term...
of São José de São Lázaro
São José de São Lázaro
São José de São Lázaro is a Portuguese parish, located in the municipality of Braga. It has a population of 14 830 inhabitants and a total area of 1.72 km²....
, in the municipality of Braga
Braga Municipality
-Parishes:...
, northern Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. Located in the former territory of the Callaici Bracari, the granite rock fountain/spring has several inscriptions in the Celtic language
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
, dedicated to the Gallaecian and Lusitanian god
Lusitanian mythology
Lusitanian mythology is the mythology of the Lusitanians, the Indo-European people of western Iberia, in the territory comprising most of modern Portugal, Extremadura and a small part of Salamanca....
s Tongoenabiagus
Tongoenabiagus
Tongoenabiagus was the god of the Fonte do Ídolo , a 1st century shrine in Braga with inscriptions in a Celtic language, a fountain shrine dedicated both to Tongoenabiagus and the goddess Nabia...
and Nabia
Nabia
Nabia was the goddess of rivers and water in Gallaecian and Lusitanian mythology, in the territory of modern Galicia and Portugal.The present-day Navia River and Avia_ in Galicia, was named in honor of the deity...
(built during era of Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
).
History
The construction of the fountain probably began in the 1st century, associated with a water cult, dedicated to the Lusitanian divinty Tongo Nabiagus, and ordered constructed by Célico Fronto.Kingdom
First identified by Georg Braun in his map of Braga in 1594, the document indicated the location of the spring (marked by a channel of water).By 1695, the land on which the fountain is located was owned by Father Santos Rodrigues, vicar of São João de Castelões, in Guimarães. On his death, his property passed to his niece, D. Angélica de Barros, who later bequeathed it to her brother-in-law Vicente Gomes do Couto.
In the 18th century, the accountant D.
Dom (title)
Dom is a title of respect prefixed to the given name. It derives from Latin Dominus.It is used in English for certain Benedictine and Carthusian monks, and for members of certain communities of Canons Regular. Examples include Benedictine monks of the English Benedictine Congregation...
Jerónimo Contador de Argote, noted in his records: "behind the church of São João Marcos is a garden, that is called "Idol", in which is located a deep spring, which has a rock, which appears to be live rock, with a figure in long robes, that is five palms [in size]: it looks like [the figure] has a long bear, and part of his body is missing; his right hand is broken and on the left the form of a envolotório, and above the head there are letters..." Jerónimo recounts with this detail description, a design of the fountain of the Idol that was first created by the Bishop of Urianópolis, Alves de Figueire.
Domingos Fernandes da Silva attempted to acquire the lands judicially, under the pre-text that the lands were part of his property in 1816.
On 6 August 1861, Emílio Hübner visited the garden of the Idol, informed that name of the divinity was obscured by lime, and attempted to correct the inscription, following the notes of D. Jerónimo.
A year later, King Pedro V
Pedro V of Portugal
* Duke of Barcelos* Marquis of Vila Viçosa* Count of Ourém* Count of Barcelos* Count of Arraiolos* Count of Guimarães-Honours:* Knight of the Garter* Knight of the Golden Fleece-Ancestry:...
and the marquess of Sousa examine the fountain, then offered to the monarch as a gift by its owner João de Abreu Guedes do Couto. The King wanted to remove it and install it on the grounds of Quinta dos Falcões, as a base of a lapidary museum, but desisted.
Around the 1870s, the fountain was sold to Luís do Amaral Ferreira, then known as o Alemão (the German), but later passed into the hands of Maria do Carmo Sousa, wife of Luís do Amaral Ferreira 8in 1875). By the 1890s, the fountain was the property of José Joaquim de Oliveira, who married Maria do Carmo Sousa.
By 1894, José Leite de Vasconcelos
José Leite de Vasconcelos
José Leite de Vasconcelos Cardoso Pereira de Melo was a Portuguese ethnographer and prolific author who wrote extensively on Portuguese philology and prehistory...
visited the Idol's garden, and completed a study of the structure (in a letter date 27 March 1894 to Martins Sarmento). Martins Sarmento, for his part, was interested in creating a mould of the fountain for the Museum of the Sociedade Martins Sarmento, in Guimarães. Leite de Vasconcelos returned a year later to Braga, in order to examine the inscriptions, which had by then become covered in lime: he rectified the obscurity of some of the inscription: recarving TONGOE from PONGOE. Leite de Vasconcelos made return visits in 1903 and 1905 to study the fountain further, hypothesizing that the human figure on the left was the religious practitioner and the image within the structure the divinity.
Republic
In 1936, the municipal government of Braga, under its president Francisco Araújo Malheiro, acquired the land surrounding the fountain. But, they transferred this title to the State the following year, including the fountain, the surrounding lands and access along Rua do Raio: the Direcção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (DGMEN) then demolitioned the public tank, water pipes, encountered a imbrex and tegulaImbrex and tegula
The imbrex and tegula were overlapping roof tiles used in ancient Greek and Roman architecture as a waterproof and durable roof covering. They were made predominantly of fired clay, but also sometimes of marble, bronze or gilt...
and votive inscription. Subsequent repairs occurred in 1952, while access to the space was developed in 1967.
In 1980-1981, Alain Tranoy, reassessing Leite de Vasconcelos' original hypothesis, suggested that the left figure on the idol was the divinty, while the enclosed figure the practitioner/devotee. Later, António Rodríguez Colmenero defended that the fountain was part of plural sanctuary, and the figures represented the figures of Nabia and Tongo Nabiago.
In 1995, a conservation study of the fountain was undertaken by professors Maria Amélia Sequeiro Braga and Luís Aires de Barros. It was followed in 1999 by an archaeological investigation of the surrounding area, and a 2000-2001, project by architect Paula Silva, in collaboration with Carla Pestana and João Ferreira, to construct a building to preserve the site and act as interpretative centre.
In September 2002, a public tender process offered the project to Casimiro Ribeiro e Filhos, Lda. and CARI-Guimarães. It was followed in 2003 by a formal excavation by the Archaeology department of the Universidade do Minho, coordinated by Francisco Sande Lemos and José Manuel Freitas Leite, with the collaboration of Liliana Sampaio, Sandra Nogueira, Ricardo Silva and Artur Jaime Duarte, who were responsible for the discovering drainage canals and Roman wall structures. At the same time, in 2003, the Universidade do Minho was responsible for cleaning of the rocks and clearing the vegatation, developing a humidity-controlled environment with reception area. On the conclusion of the construction project, in 2004, the site fell under the authority of the DGEMN, the municipal government of Braga, the Universidade do Minho and the D. Diogo de Sousa Regional Museum, through a protocol between the identified parties. In 2005, the municipality of Braga was conceded the operational control of the site for a period of 25 years, and on 11 January 2006 the interpretative pavilion was inaugurated.
Architecture
The fountain is a large granite surface, forming an elongated backrest, measuring about 3 metres wide and 1.20 metres high. On the left of the rock is a carved human figure, about 1.10 metres tall, upright, but deteriorated, and possibly male with a beard, wrapped in a toga, holding in his left arm a bulky object. It is flanked above by Latin inscription, the first word partially cut into the stone. To the right of the figure (just slightly below) is a rectangular building cut into the rock, about 0.7 metres high, 0.6 metres wide and 0.12 deep, with the worn figure of human head. The little house is crowned by a triangular pediment with a bird engraved into its triangular form, while other Latin inscriptions are engraved into its sides, extending to the base. At the base of this granite structure flows the fountain's water.The fountain is enclosed in a modernist structure built to protect and act as an interpretive centre, within the historical centre of Braga, near the Palace of Raio and Hospital of São Marcos.
The monument is located outside of the former urban perimeter of Bracara Augusta (modern day Braga), and whose many epigraphic inscriptions permits a clear association between it and the local religious divinity at the time: Tongoenabiagus
Tongoenabiagus
Tongoenabiagus was the god of the Fonte do Ídolo , a 1st century shrine in Braga with inscriptions in a Celtic language, a fountain shrine dedicated both to Tongoenabiagus and the goddess Nabia...
, which was associated with the goddess Nabia
Nabia
Nabia was the goddess of rivers and water in Gallaecian and Lusitanian mythology, in the territory of modern Galicia and Portugal.The present-day Navia River and Avia_ in Galicia, was named in honor of the deity...
in Lusitanian mythology
Lusitanian mythology
Lusitanian mythology is the mythology of the Lusitanians, the Indo-European people of western Iberia, in the territory comprising most of modern Portugal, Extremadura and a small part of Salamanca....
.
A few indicators suggest that there may have existed, in the same location, another structure, likely a temple to the goddess Nabia (as yet undiscovered). The figure in the toga could represent the godAsclepius
Asclepius
Asclepius is the God of Medicine and Healing in ancient Greek religion. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia , Iaso , Aceso , Aglæa/Ægle , and Panacea...
. Francisco Sande Lemos, suggests that the fountain was paired with the sanctuary of Fragas de Panóias in Vila Real, one of the more familiar monuments of Roman rock-art epigraphy
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
in the Iberia
Iberia
The name Iberia refers to three historical regions of the old world:* Iberian Peninsula, in Southwest Europe, location of modern-day Portugal and Spain** Prehistoric Iberia...
n northwest.
Inscriptions
The inscription above the main figure states that Célico Fronto, natural of Arcóbriga, Ambimogido, made this work, although the a portion of the first part of the phrase of missing). To the right of the enclosed figure, and continuing to the base the inscription declares Célico Fronto made this work. Alongside the house the inscription , indicating the spelling of the divinity TongoenabiagusTongoenabiagus
Tongoenabiagus was the god of the Fonte do Ídolo , a 1st century shrine in Braga with inscriptions in a Celtic language, a fountain shrine dedicated both to Tongoenabiagus and the goddess Nabia...
, while above the same engraving statingwith affection from the great-grandparents.
A comparable stone from the old Chapel of Santana, which once existed near the source of the fountain (and now in the archbishops Palace), with an inscription alluding to the restoration of the structure; the inscription reads "T CAELICVS IPIP FRONT ET M ET LVCIVS TITIPRONEPOTES CAELICI Fronton RENO RVN (VA)", or specifically T. Celico Fronto, and Mark, Tito and Lucio, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Celico Fronto restored.
External links
- Religiões da Lusitânia (in Portuguese)