Ancient Roman sarcophagi built to hold the dead eventually served the living as church altars and fountains, according to a new study of ancient stonework in northern Italy. Researchers Maria Elena Gorrini and Eleonora Destefanis traced how burial monuments in and around Vercelli were given new uses over centuries.
At Vercelli Cathedral, the front panel of a sarcophagus linked to Bishop Flaviano was combined with three other stone slabs to make an altar. A sarcophagus belonging to Lollia Procla had a different fate: It was found in a convent garden, where it had served as a fountain basin.
An early 18th-century manuscript described more than 40 sarcophagi made of marble and other stone found at the cathedral. Yet the study lists just six known marble examples from Vercelli and nearby areas, including fragments and a lost lid. The contrast illustrates gaps in the surviving evidence.
How ancient Roman sarcophagi became church altars and fountains
Other coffins were put to everyday use. Fourteen stone examples held by the Leone Museum had previously been used as basins or livestock watering troughs. Some sarcophagi in villages and fields became flower planters.
At a nearby abbey, the front panel of Mettia Valeriana’s sarcophagus was fitted with iron handles and used as a medieval grave cover. The sarcophagus later became an altar.
Ancient building materials followed similar paths. Roman columns were installed in churches, while carved capitals became basins for holy water. At a church demolished in the 18th century, builders had reused inscribed funerary stones in walls and pillars. Two inscriptions naming a mother and daughter suggest that some material came from the same Roman cemetery.
The researchers also examined the marble itself, identifying stone brought to the region through Mediterranean and river trade networks during the Roman Empire. Centuries later, valuable pieces could remain useful even when their original buildings and burial sites had disappeared.
Ancient graves, changing laws and the rise of churches
The practice raised legal questions long before the Middle Ages. Roman authorities tightened controls over the removal of materials from monuments and graves during the third and fourth centuries. Fourth-century laws threatened heavy fines for stripping tombs for profit, potentially including confiscation of buildings where the materials were installed.
As Christianity spread through the region in the fourth century, churches became important places for reused stone. Laws in the following century sometimes viewed the practice more favorably. In medieval times, ancient materials also changed hands through official permission, donations, purchases, and excavation, though the rules were not always clear.
Dates for many alterations remain uncertain. The authors call reuse “a cultural process” shaped by law, power, and changing attitudes toward the Roman past.
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