grave altars en

Altars that contain or are placed over a grave, sometimes of grand scale and serving as both a funerary altar and a commemorative monument. The form was highly developed in ancient Rome and was continued in the Christian era; particularly lavish examples date to the Baroque period. For tombs that mimic the form of an altar, but are not actually used as altars, use "altar tombs." To distinguish grave altars that held ashes rather than a corpse or other remains, use the more specific "cineraria (sepulchral monuments)."