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Crypts have their origins in the catacombs beneath the ancient churches of Rome.
A seventh century pilgrim from Northumbria, Benedict Biscop, was impressed by the dark catacombs where he saw the bones of early saints and holy men.
He returned home and began building churches with stone vaults where relics could be kept and important individuals buried.
A seventh century pilgrim from Northumbria, Benedict Biscop, was impressed by the dark catacombs where he saw the bones of early saints and holy men.
He returned home and began building churches with stone vaults where relics could be kept and important individuals buried.
Crypts
The crypt at Whithorn
The crypt and adjacent undercroft at Whithorn comprise a substantial part of what remains of the cathedral’s eastern end.
The earliest vault lies beneath the presbytery and high altar, and was probably built during expansion of the cathedral in the 1200s. It has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, but traces of the original more decorative ribbed ceiling have been found.
The adjacent undercroft was created around 1500 when the older crypt was probably altered.
The importance of the crypt
The earliest crypt was built around 1200 and probably held the rock-cut tomb of Saint Ninian.
But this was just the latest in a long line of churches built to contain Whithorn’s most precious possession – Ninian’s bones.
It was here that weary pilgrims, having paused in the chapel above to see and perhaps touch these bones, finally reached their destination.
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They entered the crypt down one stair and, after spending time in its hallowed vaults, ascended a different stairway. This one-way system was needed to cope with the crowds of pilgrims who visited the priory on the saint’s feast days. When the southern chapel was built around 1500, a large vaulted chamber known as the undercroft was created beneath it to hold it up. |
An unusual feature in the undercroft is a small domed oven in the western wall, used to bake the wafers needed to celebrate mass.