Hypogeum: Difference between revisions

'''Hypogeum''' or '''hypogaeum''' (plural '''hypogea''') literally means "underground", from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''hypo'' (under) and ''gaia'' (mother earth or goddess of earth).<ref>[[James Stevens Curl]] (2006) ''A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture''</ref> It usually refers to an underground [[temple]] or [[tomb]].

 

<blockquote>Like other ambitious Romans, the bishop-saints of the third and fourth centuries were usually buried in hypogea in the cemeteries outside the walls of their cities; often it was only miracles at their tombs that caused their successors to adopt more up-to-date designs. In Dijon the saint and bishop Benignus (d. c. 274) was buried in a large sarcophagus in a chamber tomb in the Roman cemetery. By the sixth century the tomb had long since fallen into disrepair and was regarded as pagan, even by Bishop Gregory of Langres."<ref>Werner Jacobsen, "Saints' Tombs in Frankish Church Architecture" ''Speculum'' '''72'''.4 (October 1997:1107-1143) p. 1127.</ref></blockquote>