The entrance to the southern inner apse around 1930.
The entrance to the southern inner apse around 1930.
This view is very different today, a pedestal altar
now blocks this
entrance, but this was not in place when
the photo above was taken. The lintel stone seen above spanning the gap between the wall-slabs
has since been removed and traces of its mounting grooves can still be seen on the slabs today. Although
there are grooves for an upper slab, there are no comparable marks on the wall-slabs
for a lower slab.
The pedestal standing loose in the opening was not used for the new altar,
it has a different shape.
Mayr (3) believed that a third double slab pedestal altar stood here forming a
northern "niche",
and although this photo shows only the upper slab in place, a photo published by
Evans from the
1950's shows two slabs and a pedestal in place. The removal of the upper slab
from this
arrangement has created the structure that we see today.
Photo by M. Ugolini.
3. Mayr A., Abhandlungen der kgl. Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaft, 1, Cl., XXI. Bd., III. Abth., 1901.