Toulouse]] In medieval terms, a crypt (from the Latin crypta and the Greek kryptē) is a stone chamber or vault, usually beneath the floor of a church or castle, 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. 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 Bu