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They probably gave entrance to dressing-rooms for the two sexes attached to it, waiting-rooms for the baptized and their relations, &c.; and an arch of the fourth century, near to which the herring-bone pavement runs, was probably the entrance to a portico joining the basilica with the baptistery, or the consignatorium, where the bishop anointed the neophytes directly after baptism, before they made their solemn entry into the church.
The baptistery is accessible by steps both from the basilica and the narthex. Attached to it is the consignatorium, as at Parenzo. This retains its mosaic pavement, with a design of stags drinking at a vase, and the text "Sicut cervus," &c. It is kept covered with pebbles to preserve it. The baptistery itself is octagonal externally and circular internally, with niches and several doors.
After the custom of anointing the newly baptized in the consignatorium was abandoned, it became the chapel of S. Nicolò, then of S. Mary Magdalene, and the original use was quite forgotten. The campanile is of the fifteenth century and uninteresting.
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