The Crypt of the Crucifix

The Crypt of the Crucifix

In room 3 of the Museum there is an installation that allows for an immersive virtual visit to the Crypt of the Crucifix, a medieval place of worship entirely dug into the rocky bank, inside a quarry already cultivated in the Messapian era, located approximately 1 km to the north of the historic center of Ugento. It, located in a peripheral area of ​​the oldest Messapian settlement, much larger than the medieval town, was part of a small rural village.
The crypt is located beneath a 16th-17th century chapel. and is today accessible from the north-west via a steep staircase, which has a barrel-vaulted roof closed by a lunette frescoed with the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple; some excavation and restoration interventions carried out in 2004-2005 brought to light the original entrance, open to the south-west and directly accessible from a front of the ancient quarry; it was flanked by some medieval pit tombs. The crypt has a trapezoidal plan (approx. 8.80 x 6-7 m) with a vaulted roof (fig. 1), with a maximum height of approx. 2.40 m, supported centrally by two smooth limestone columns (fig. 2). On the north-eastern wall, in front of the original entrance, there is a seventeenth-century block altar, perhaps placed in the same place as the medieval one, while on the opposite wall there is a sort of step-seat. In the corner formed by the two walls, at the top, a wolf's mouth opening is dug which lets in sunlight exactly from the east.
The current appearance of the small underground church is the result of a renovation that took place between the 16th and 17th centuries, which involved the closure of the original entrance and the subsequent opening of the current access. The floor level was also lowered by approx. 40-45 cm and the two limestone columns were added, characterized by capitals decorated in the lower part with four eight-petalled rosettes; it is a decorative motif that recalls the one present on some Messapic capitals, such as the one that supported the famous bronze statue of Zeus in Ugento.
The surfaces of the hypogeum are almost entirely covered with a pictorial cycle created in different periods: a first phase is dated to the 13th-14th century. and is still influenced by Byzantine painting, while a second, later one dates back to the 17th century. The frescoes depict sacred images generally frontal and in a hieratic attitude, among which great importance is given to the figure of the Virgin, who recurs several times. The oldest fresco is an Annunciation on the north-western wall (fig. 3): the Virgin is depicted with a red veil and a spindle in her left hand, an element generally associated with the theme of virginity, while the right hand raise towards the Archangel Gabriel. On the same wall, but further west, another painting, rather damaged, depicts the Archangel Michael, with spread wings and a rich Byzantine imperial costume; at his feet there is a kneeling woman wearing a red tunic, identifiable as the person who commissioned the fresco. In the main wall, the north-eastern one, above the seventeenth-century altar there is a Crucifixion (fig. 4), painted in the seventeenth century. as part of the renovation interventions described above and which gave its name to the crypt. Immediately to the right there is a 14th century fresco. depicting Saint Nicholas, half-length, with the Byzantine episcopal costume and in the act of blessing; the saint holds the book of the Gospel decorated with a cross in his left hand. A little further on there is a semi-pillar decorated on the front with a Greek cross in red, surmounted by a peacock (fig. 5), while at the eastern end of the same wall is the depiction of a Christ Pantocrator (fig. 6) dated to 14th century and represented with a right hand blessing and a left hand holding the scroll of the “New Law”.On the south-eastern wall of the crypt, the Virgin Eleousa (elect) or Glikophilousa (of tenderness) is painted with the Child, who sweetly places the head of her son close to her (fig. 7); the fresco, in which the strong definition of the somatic features of the figures betray a clear Byzantine style, dates back to the 13th century. To the right of the panel, at the bottom, there is also a figure, perhaps a donor. Also on the south-eastern wall, but immediately next to the original entrance to the crypt, another depiction of the Virgin and Child appears, this time full-figure and seated on a throne, characterized by a blue tunic and a veil embroidered with motifs. floral (fig. 8); with her left arm she holds the Child while with her right hand she holds the lily, symbol of purity but also emblem of the Angevin kingdom. A very particular detail of this depiction, little used in classical iconography, is the ring with a pendant cross that can be seen on the lobe of the Child's left ear and which could refer to the name of the patrons of the painting, namely the Santacroce family, originally of France and arrived in Italy in the Norman era. Alongside this last painting, recent restorations have brought to light other portions of frescoes in which the image of a saint and that of a kneeling client can be recognised.
The decoration of the ceiling, dated to the 13th century, is very singular in the context of the pictorial program of the rock churches of this period. The figurative repertoire is rather unusual and imaginative: painted shields can be recognized within rhomboidal and triangular spaces (fig. 9) which seem to describe a shirt, perhaps an allusion to the curtains of a military camp. Some scholars have hypothesized that this figurative repertoire could be due to commissioning by the Knights Templar or the Teutonic Knights. Also frescoed on the ceiling are six or eight-pointed stars, red and black in colour, as well as vegetal motifs (such as racemes, rosettes, wavy shoots and clovers) and zoomorphic motifs, among which fantastic animals of the most varied shapes also stand out (fig. 10), which symbolize the contrast between positive and negative forces and allude to the theme of death and resurrection. In particular, we recognize: a pair of rampant lions, interpreted as guardians of the sacred space that mark the passage from the outside world to the consecrated area; a peacock, a Christological symbol containing a promise of immortality, which is about to peck a bird (perhaps a magpie which generally has a negative value); a griffin, a hydra, a spotted boar and a sphinx, fantastic creatures born from the morphological contamination between man and animal.
The lack of historical sources, which attest to the crypt's belonging to Chivalric Orders or Ecclesiastical Bodies, has rather suggested the hypothesis that the place of worship may have been built for the funerary purposes of a rich local family.

I. Miccoli