Crypt

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This article is about the stone chambers called "crypts". For other uses, see Crypt (disambiguation).

Crypt of Bayeux, France

In terms of medieval European architecture, a crypt (from the Latin crypta and the Greek κρυπτη, kryptē) is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a church usually used as a chapel or burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics of important persons such as saints or high ranking church officials.

The crypt evolved in Old St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, about the year 600, as a means of affording pilgrims a view of Saint Peter's tomb, which lay, according to the Roman fashion, directly below the high altar. The tomb was made accessible through an underground passageway beneath the sanctuary, where pilgrims could enter at one stair, pass by the tomb and exit, without interrupting the clerical community's service at the altar directly above.^[1] The crypt was introduced into Frankish church building in the mid-eighth century, as a feature of the Romanization of the Frankish church.

Where Christian churches have been built over mithraea, the mithraeum has often been adapted to serve as a crypt.

1 Description
2 Burial vaults
3 Notes
4 Examples
5 See also

[edit] Description

Churches were occasionally raised above ground level to accommodate a crypt at the ground level, such as St. Michael's Church in Hildesheim, Germany. Crypts are typically found below the apse such as at Saint-Germain en Auxerre, but occasionally found beneath church wings and naves. First known in the early Christian period, in particular North Africa at Orleansville and Djemila in Algeria, and Byzantium at Saint John Studio in Constantinople, crypts were first used and spread widely in western Europe under Charlemagne, they are most common in the early medieval West, for example in Burgundy at Dijon and Tournus. After the 10th century the need for crypts faded, when Church officials permitted relics to be held in the main level of the church. By the Gothic period crypts were rarely built.

[edit] Burial vaults

Main article: Burial vault (tomb).

In more modern terms, a crypt is most often a stone chambered burial vault used to store the deceased. Crypts are usually found in cemeteries and under public religious buildings, such as churches or cathedrals, but are also occasionally found beneath mausolea or chapels on personal estates. Wealthy or prestigious families will often have a 'family crypt' or 'vault' in which all members of the family are stored. Many royal families, for example, have vast crypts containing the bodies of dozens of former royals. In some localities an above ground crypt is more commonly called a mausoleum, which also refers to any elaborate building intended as a burial place, for one or any number of people.

There was also a trend in the 1800s of building crypts into medium to large size family estates, usually subtly placed on the edge of the grounds or more commonly incorporated into the cellar. After a change of owner these are often blocked up and the house deeds will not allow this area to be re-developed.

[edit] Notes

^ Apollonj Ghetti, et al. eds. Esplorazioni sotto la confessione di San Pietro. Eseguite negli anni 1940-1949 (Città del Vaticano, 1951) 1:173-93, noted in Werner Jacobsen, "Saints' Tombs in Frankish Church Architecture" Speculum 72.4 (October 1997:1107-1143) p. 1134 note 70.