Cripta di San Sepolcro

A place of profound sacredness, the crypt was chosen by St Charles Borromeo as his own personal place of prayer, where he would go every Wednesday and Friday afternoon. It was not uncommon to see him spend entire nights in what he himself described as the Holy Spirit Gym, in adoration of the replica of Christ’s tomb. For this reason, after his canonisationion, a polychrome terracotta statue which depicts the saint kneeling before the sarcophagus.

The crypt also offers visitors the chance to discover one of the oldest artefacts in the town’s history: the floor, consisting of large slabs of Verona white stone, in fact, comes from the paving of the 4th-century Roman forum, the heart of the civitas where the main civil and religious activities took place.

Reopened to the public in 2016 after fifty years of closure, the venue subsequently became the focus of a major restoration work funded by MIBAC and completed in the spring of 2019. The works have brought to light a decorative heritage of extraordinary value:

• Vaults of the chancel: an ornamental motif featuring stars and plant motifs dating from the late 13th century;
• Crucifixions: two striking frescoes, one along the entrance staircase and the other, dating from the 14th century, in the chancel;
• Depictions of the Saints: the three full-length figures of Maddalena, John the Baptist and Elena, mother of Constantine (or perhaps Saint Catherine of Alexandria);
• Scenes and wall frescoes: Dinner at Simone’s house in the left-hand wing of the chancel, alongside the 16th-century works by the Our Lady of Loreto and de Our Lady and Saints Rocco and John the Baptist in the entrance hall;
• Decorative elements of the apse: the 17th-century stucco work and decorations depicting the instruments of the Passion.