Santa Maria ad Cryptas, Medieval church in Fossa, Abruzzo, Italy

Santa Maria ad Cryptas stands about a kilometre from Fossa's centre, built on a slope held by a buried counterfort wall and two support pillars. Its west facade has a gabled profile, a pointed Gothic portal with capitals carved with rosettes, flowers and palms, and a large rectangular window above. Inside, a single nave of three bays leads to a square presbytery and a crypt, with 13th-century Genesis frescoes covering the walls.

The church was probably first built in the 9th or 10th century as a Roman-Byzantine temple with a crypt, which gave it its name. Four centuries later, Benedictine craftsmen built a Gothic-Cistercian church on the earlier structure. It was severely damaged in the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and reopened for worship on 28 April 2019 after restoration.

The name "ad Cryptas" comes from the crypt beneath the presbytery, reached by a staircase and possibly derived from a hypogeum dedicated to the goddess Vesta. At the base of the apse, the frescoes name the patrons: Guglielmo Morelli of Sant'Eusanio, documented in 1259, his wife, an abbot named Guido and three young women.

The church stands about a kilometre from the centre of Fossa, a few kilometres from the Monastery of Santo Spirito ad Ocre on which it depended. Built on a slope, it is held by a buried counterfort wall along the valley side and two support pillars at the ends of the lateral wall. It was badly damaged in the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and reopened for worship on 28 April 2019 after a long restoration.

The frescoes name their patrons at the base of the apse: Guglielmo Morelli of Sant'Eusanio, documented in 1259, his wife, an abbot named Guido and three young women. In the third bay, two knight-saints, George and Martin, point to a patron who belonged to a chivalric order.