crypt

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

A crypt (from the Greek κρύπτη, kryptē, from which the Latin crypta means hidden) is, in medieval architecture, a room or a room made of stone, usually placed below a church floor, often containing the Tombs of important personalities such as saints (or their relics) or high offices of the clergy. The churches were occasionally built above ground level to insert a crypt, as in the case of the Church of St. Michael in Hildesheim, Germany, a unique example of Ottoman architecture and heritage of humanity. The crypts are normally located under the apse as in the church of Saint-Germain d'Auxerre, but occasionally even under the transept, as in the Anagnian Cathedral, the side chapels of the church or its naves. Created at the beginning of the Christian era, particularly in North Africa at Ech-Cheliff and Djemila in Algeria, and in the Byzantine period in the St John's Studio in Constantinople, crypts were first used in Western Europe, and hence their Widely used, under Charlemagne. They were very common in the Middle Ages, for example in Burgundy, Dijon and Tournus. After the tenth century, the need for their use began to decline, when ecclesiastical authorities permitted to keep relics at the main level of churches. The crypts were rarely built in the Gothic period. In modern terms a crypt is a chamber or a closed stone space, used to preserve the remains of the deceased. There are crypts usually found in cemeteries and religious buildings such as cathedrals, but occasionally also in private property. Rich or prestigious families often have a 'family crypt' in which to conserve the remains of family members. Many real families, for example, have large crypts containing the bodies of dozens of previous reigns (such as the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, the Royal Crypt of the Escorial Monastery in Spain, the Superga Crypt of Superga at Turin). In some locations a crypt built above ground level is called mausoleum, a term that also refers to any monumental building used for burial purposes. #crypt