The word "crypt" developed as an alternative form of theLatin "vault" as it was carried over intoLate Latin, and came to refer to the ritual rooms found underneath church buildings. It also served as avault for storing important and/or sacred items.
The word "crypta", however, is also the female form ofcrypto "hidden". The earliest known origin of both is in theAncient Greekκρύπτω, the first person singular indicative of the verb "to conceal, to hide".
The famous crypt atOld St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, developed about the year 600, as a means of affordingpilgrims a view ofSaint Peter's tomb, which lay according to the Roman fashion, directly below thehigh altar. Thetomb was made accessible through an underground passageway beneath thesanctuary 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.[1]
TheVisigothic crypt (the Crypt of San Antolín) inPalencia Cathedral (Spain), was built during the reign ofWamba to preserve the remains of the martyrSaint Antoninus of Pamiers, 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.[2]
Crypts were introduced intoFrankish church building in the mid-8th century, as a feature of its Romanization. Their popularity then spread more widely in western Europe underCharlemagne. Examples from this period are most common in the early medieval West, for example inBurgundy atDijon andTournus.
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 theGothic period crypts were rarely built, howeverburial vaults continued to be constructed beneath churches and referred to as crypts.
In more modern terms, a crypt is most often a stone chamberedburial vault used to store the deceased. Placing a corpse into a crypt can be calledimmurement, and is a method offinal disposition, as an alternative to, for example,cremation. Crypts are usually found incemeteries and under public religious buildings, such aschurches orcathedrals, but are also occasionally found beneathmausoleums orchapels on personal estates. Wealthy or prestigious families will often have a 'family crypt' or 'vault,' in which all members of the family are interred. Manyroyal families, for example, have vast crypts containing the bodies of dozens of former royalty. In some localities, an above ground crypt is more commonly called amausoleum, which also refers to any elaborate building intended as a burial place, for any number ofpeople.
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[citation needed].
^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"Speculum72.4 (October 1997:1107-1143) p. 1134 note 70.
