Inside England’s Lost Royal Crypt — Forgotten For 700 Years

Step below ground into one of England's most astonishing early medieval survivals. Beneath St Wystan's Church in Repton, Derbyshire, lies an 8th-century crypt that once served as the royal mausoleum for the kings of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, including King Æthelbald and King Wiglaf.

Famously described by poet Sir John Betjeman as “holy air encased in stone,” this tiny, vaulted chamber features four unique spiral-twisted columns and symmetrical staircases built to guide medieval pilgrims to the shrine of Saint Wystan. Lost to history after the 10th century, the crypt remained entirely forgotten until a grave-digging workman accidentally fell through its roof in 1779!