Crypt

A (from Latin crypta “”) is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains, , or.

Originally, crypts were typically found below the main of a church, such as at the, but were later located beneath ,  and  as well. Occasionally churches were raised high to accommodate a crypt at the ground level, such as in,.

Etymology
The word “Crypt” developed as an alternative form of the Latin “vault” as it was carried over into, and came to refer to the ritual rooms found underneath church buildings. It also served as a for storing important and/or sacred items.

The word “Crypta”, however, is also the female form of crypto “hidden”. The earliest known origin of both is in the κρύπτω (krupto/krypto), the first person singular indicative of the verb “to conceal, to hide”.

Development
First known in the early Christian period, in particular North Africa at and  in, and  at  in  where Christian churches have been built over , the mithraeum has often been adapted to serve as a crypt.

The famous crypt at, Rome, developed about the year 600, as a means of affording s a view of ’s tomb, which lay according to the Roman fashion, directly below the. The was made accessible through an underground passageway beneath the  from 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.

The crypt (the Crypt of San Antolín) in  (Spain), was built during the reign of  to preserve the remains of the martyr, a Visigothic-Gallic nobleman brought from Narbonne to Visigothic Hispania in 672 or 673 by Wamba himself. These are the only remains of the Visigothic cathedral of Palencia.

Crypts were introduced into church building in the mid-8th century, as a feature of its Romanization. Their popularity then spread more widely in western Europe under. Examples from this period are most common in the early medieval West, for example in at  and.

After the 10th century, the early medieval requirements of a crypt faded, as church officials permitted relics to be held in the main level of the church. By the period crypts were rarely built, however  continued to be constructed beneath churches and referred to as crypts.

Burial vaults
In more modern terms, a crypt is most often a stone chambered used to store the deceased. Placing a corpse into a crypt can be called immurement, and is a method of, as an alternative to, for example,. Crypts are usually found in and under public religious buildings, such as  or, but are also occasionally found beneath  or s on personal estates. Wealthy or prestigious families will often have a ‘family crypt’ or ‘vault,’ in which all members of the family are interred. Many, for example, have vast crypts containing the bodies of dozens of former royalty. In some localities, an above ground crypt is more commonly called a, which also refers to any elaborate building intended as a burial place, for any number of.

There was a trend in the 19th century of building crypts on 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.

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