Burial vault (tomb)

Tomb of the French King Charles X, and his son Louis, in the Franciscan monastery Kostanjevici, Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

The Brisbane family vault, in the graveyard next to Skelmorlie Aisle, Largs.

A burial vault is a structural stone- or brick-lined underground tomb or 'burial' chamber for the interment of a dead body or bodies underground. The main difference between entombment in a subterranean vault and a traditional in-ground burial is, that the coffin is not placed directly in the earth, but is placed in a burial chamber, specially built for this purpose. These burial tombs were originally and are still often vaulted and usually have stone slab entrances. They are often privately owned and used for specific family or other groups, but usually stand beneath a public religious building, such as a church, or in a churchyard or cemetery. A crypt may be used as a burial vault.

History and description

After the Christanization of Europe, in most areas ruled by ​​the Holy Roman Empire, vault burials initially mostly took place inside church crypts under the influence of Catholic church. Since the Middle Ages, this form of burial was essentially reserved for an exclusive group of people, including monarchs, high-ranking clergy, nobility and other notable individuals. Ornately carved and elaborately designed sarcophagi were often used for the dead from higher social classes which took place in church and cathedral crypts beneath the floor. In this sense, a crypt burial inside a vault enabled the “intact storage” of the body of the deceased until the Last Judgment. The last resting places of European monarchs were mostly designed as vaults. Commoners were usually buried in the ground, sometimes in mass graves. Pestilences such as plague outbreaks along with population growth and increasing mortality rates, some precautionary measures had to be taken against intramural burials and entombments in the vaults beneath churches and cathedrals which was deemed to be unsanitary. At the end of the 18th century, a gradual change took place in the continental Europe as a result of the Enlightenment and new ideas about hygiene, stemming from the miasma theory. In-ground burials outside the walls or boundaries of cities started to replace crypt burial in the vaults. In 1784, under Emperor Joseph II, a ban on burials inside churches was introduced, with the exception of bishops who were permitted to be entombed in the church crypts. And a similar decree was promulgated by Napoleon in 1804, under the Edict of Saint-Cloud. Instead, the tombs were moved to the cemeteries and became the subject of regulation by cemetery regulations and civil authorities. This decision led to construction of private burial vaults in cemeteries and on private property, both Catholics and Protestants alike. The economic and political rise of the bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 19th century and the associated desire for representation contributed to the fact that burial chambers and mausoleums as status symbol, continued to be built as a monumental form of artistic value. In most cemeteries, the planning and construction of an underground crypt as well as a freestanding mausoleum was subjected to approval and it was possible after examining the submitted construction drawings, and access via stairs was usually permitted if the grave vault was of sufficient size. Although it always had to be enclosed, the relatives were still able to get close to the coffin to pray and pay their respects. Over the course of the 19th century, the free placement of coffins in the crypt vaults was increasingly prohibited, and the coffins had to be sealed in wall niches or locked chambers within the actual crypt, and coffins had to be constructed of metal or wooden coffins with zinc inserts and sealed stone sarcophagi to prevent the bodily effluvia and unhealthy vapors of decomposition from escaping.

A brick-lined burial vault containing two sealed zinc coffins

In addition to private burial vaults, many cemeteries had built public receiving vaults for the temporary storage of corpses for a fee that were only to be interred at a later date.

See also

• Mausoleum
• Crypt