Les Catacombes - Paris Underworld

Les Catacombes

Catacomb (n) a subterranean cemetery of galleries with recesses for tombs - Merrium Webster
From 5 to 20 meters under the city of Paris, there exist a complex network galleries which spreads over 300 kilometers. A section of the galleries is open for public where we can visit the remains of six million Parisian.

Les Catacombes is acually a part of ancient quarries in which the bones of over six million Parisian have been stored since 1810 to solve the problem of overpopulated cemetaries in Paris. The underground quarries appeared in Paris back in the end of 10th century. The objective was to bring stone and rock for the constructions, including Notre-Dame, Louvre, the royal fortress and so on. The emptiness created in the subsoil was slowly forgotten. It was the end of 18th century after a set of collapses in the quarries, that the authority realized the danger and created a team to strengthen the quarries.

The empty space under Paris is up to 7.7 million square meters making up to a volume of 6 million cubic meters on the path of over 300 kilometers long which is twice the length of all the subway lines in Paris. It is AMAZING. The quarries are everywhere under Paris, 91 kilometers under the streets, 44 kilometers under public buildings and 150 kilometers under private buildings. I guess there is one under my apartment too. The famous section is lying beneath the Opera de Paris Garnier which is in the plot of the famous broadway show "The Phantom of the Opera".

Don't be scared. This is just one out of over 6 million skeletons removed from around 30 cemetaries in Paris for the reason of public healthiness during the time when the cemeteries exhaled disturbing smell and caused epidemics from 30 generations of Parisian.

So, the government under the king Louis XVI decided to clear the cemeteries in 1785 and transferred the skeletons to a part of the ancient quaries. The process was finished in 1810 and the place became "Les Catacombes". The emporer Napoleon decided to open the place to visitors.

The skeletons are very well arranged. The front of the wall, in some places, are specially arranged like this one. Some places has old tombstones.

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Last updated November 1999.

	Les Catacombes is acually a part of ancient quarries in which the bones of over six million Parisian have been stored since 1810 to solve the problem of overpopulated cemetaries in Paris. The underground quarries appeared in Paris back in the end of 10th century. The objective was to bring stone and rock for the constructions, including Notre-Dame, Louvre, the royal fortress and so on. The emptiness created in the subsoil was slowly forgotten. It was the end of 18th century after a set of collapses in the quarries, that the authority realized the danger and created a team to strengthen the quarries.
The empty space under Paris is up to 7.7 million square meters making up to a volume of 6 million cubic meters on the path of over 300 kilometers long which is twice the length of all the subway lines in Paris. It is AMAZING. The quarries are everywhere under Paris, 91 kilometers under the streets, 44 kilometers under public buildings and 150 kilometers under private buildings. I guess there is one under my apartment too. The famous section is lying beneath the Opera de Paris Garnier which is in the plot of the famous broadway show "The Phantom of the Opera".

	Don't be scared. This is just one out of over 6 million skeletons removed from around 30 cemetaries in Paris for the reason of public healthiness during the time when the cemeteries exhaled disturbing smell and caused epidemics from 30 generations of Parisian.
So, the government under the king Louis XVI decided to clear the cemeteries in 1785 and transferred the skeletons to a part of the ancient quaries. The process was finished in 1810 and the place became "Les Catacombes". The emporer Napoleon decided to open the place to visitors.
	The skeletons are very well arranged. The front of the wall, in some places, are specially arranged like this one. Some places has old tombstones.