On the surface, Paris is one of the most elegant cities in the world. With her uniform cream-colored apartment buildings topped with mansard roofs and large boulevards lined with trees, Paris looks every inch the city of romance.
But below the surface, it’s a different story. Beneath the city of light and love lies a darker, more sinister Paris –
Welcome to the Paris Catacombs, the empire of the dead!
I had heard about the Paris Catacombs, among the most famous in the world, since childhood. So on a recent trip to Paris, I decided to finally check them out.
Table of Contents
Creation of the Paris Catacombs
By the late 1700s, Paris was in crisis. After several centuries, her cemeteries were literally bursting, causing rampant disease. And parts of the city had begun to collapse mysteriously.
Something had to be done.
The first issue to tackle was the cause of the collapses. These were the result of underground limestone quarries that had been mined for centuries. Long abandoned, buildings were built over them as Paris expanded. With no weight to support the construction, the buildings would collapse.
Charles Axel Guillaumont was appointed the first Inspector General of the Quarries in 1777. He carried out the monumental task of stabilizing and mapping the quarries; his plan, which followed the surface-level street plan, is still used today.
Next came the problem of the overflowing cemeteries. The government finally sprang into action when a basement wall adjacent to one of the cemeteries collapsed, allegedly causing the death of a young woman who drowned in the putrid juice of rotting corpses.
The solution? Placing the bones in the old limestone quarries.
The cemeteries were subsequently emptied and transferred to the quarries in the dead of night, accompanied by the sounds of priests singing the Office of the Dead. Burials continued, albeit sporadically, into the middle of the 19th century.
It was thanks to the second Inspector General of the Quarries, Louis-Étienne-François Héricart de Thury, that the bones were set into decorative patterns and the catacombs opened to the public, beginning in 1810.
What to see in the Paris Catacombs
While there are some 280 km (170 miles) of tunnels, only a small portion is open to the public. Accessing the non-public spaces is illegal and special police patrol the tunnels to catch unauthorized explorers.
The main attraction of the catacombs is the Ossuary. This is where the bones of the dead are deposited.
The inspiration for the ossuary came from the catacombs of Ancient Rome, although there are major differences between the two (for example, clandestine religious services were never held in the Paris catacombs).
Bones were arranged in decorative patterns. You’ll see skulls formed into lines, crosses, and even a heart (how sweet). These were not meant to be macabre. Instead, they acted as a kind of momento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death. In Christian belief, death is not something to be feared; it is simply another stage of life.
Other areas of interest in the Ossuary are the altar, where Mass is rarely said (as part of moving the bones from the church cemeteries, the catacombs were consecrated as holy ground), Gilbert’s tomb, an empty sarcophagus, and the Barrel, where bones have been arranged to look like a giant barrel (they are actually concealing a steel pillar).
Throughout the Ossuary, you’ll find some cheerful messages reminding people of their mortality. The messages are mostly in French. The most famous is the inscription above the lintel just as you enter the Ossuary, which reads: “Arrête! C’est ici l’empire de la Mort” (“Stop! This is the empire of the Dead”).
Another of my favorites are the sage words, “Happy the one who always keeps the hour of his death in front of his eyes and who thinks daily of death.”
Other signs posted indicate the cemetery from which the bones were taken and the year they were deposited in the catacombs.
Some parts of the catacombs that are not open to most visitors can be accessed via a special tour. Most notable among these are:
The old entrance to the catacombs. This is actually a really nice, vaulted passageway that almost gives the feeling of being in a cathedral. I don’t know if that was the intention or not, but it seems fitting.
The sculptures of Décure are exquisite sculptures carved by a former-soldier-turned-quarryman into the walls of the tunnels. Décure has served in the French army and was held captive for a number of years. After his release, he became a quarryman and dealt with his trauma by carving in detail the places of his captivity. He died following an accident in the tunnels.
The Quarryman’s Footbath is so named because the water is so clear that the quarrymen were said to have stepped in it before noticing it was there.
Interested in seeing these areas of the catacombs that are generally off-limits to the public? I recommend taking this tour, which is what I did and thoroughly enjoyed.
Who is buried in the Paris Catacombs
The remains of some 6 million Parisians from the 10th to the 18th century are buried in the Paris catacombs.
They are mostly anonymous. We’ll never know most of the people buried there. Even for the few whose names we do know, we’ll likely never know exactly which bones belong to whom.
A few of the famous dead, all victims of the French Revolution, whose remains are in the catacombs include:
- Charlotte Corday (1768 – 1793): A Girondin sympathizer during the French Revolution who stabbed the Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat to death while he was in his bath. (The episode is the subject of a famous painting by Jaques-Louis David.) As a result, Charlotte was sent to the guillotine.
- Maximilien Robespierre (1758 – 1794): A leading figure of the French Revolution and a controversial figure during his lifetime and today. After a power struggle, he was sent to the guillotine.
- Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1747 – 1793): A cousin of King Louis XVI, Philippe was known as Philippe Égalité (Philip Equality) for his support of the Revolution. He was eventually guillotined. His son Louis Philippe later became King of the French.
- Madame du Barry (1743 – 1793): A mistress of King Louis XV, she also was sent to the guillotine.
- Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743 – 1794): A chemist and member of the Academy of Sciences, he is best remembered as the father of modern chemistry. He named oxygen and recognized it as an element. He was guillotined for being a tax collector under the Ancien Régime.
- Madame Élisabeth (1764 – 1794): A sister of King Louis XVI, she was essentially executed for being the king’s sister. Her cause for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church is currently open.
How to visit the Paris Catacombs
Location and how to get there
The entrance to the catacombs is located in an old tollgate which once marked the city limits. The address is 1 Av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris.
The nearest metro station is Denfert-Rochereau (lines 4 and 6, and RER B).
Note that the exit is NOT in the same location as the entrance. I didn’t realize this and was completely disoriented when I got out. The exit is located in the same location as the gift shop, at 21 Bis Av. René Coty, 75014 Paris, about 550m (or an 8-minute walk) away from the entrance.
Opening Times
9:45am – 8:30pm, Tuesday to Sunday
Last admission 7:30pm
Closed Mondays, January 1, May 1, December 25
Tickets
€31 – Adult
€25 – Reduced
€12 – Child (5-17 years)
Free – Children under 5 years
All prices include audio guide.
I recommend booking your tickets in advance for a timed entrance, as the lines for admission often stretch around the block.
Alternatively, you could book a skip the line tour. Again, I recommend this awesome tour, which I recommend from personal experience. It includes access to parts of the catacombs that aren’t generally accessible to the public.
At the site
As with nearly all of Paris’ tourist attractions, you’ll need to go through security before entering the catacombs.
The catacombs are deep underground – deeper even than the Paris metro. There are 131 steps to the bottom and 112 to come up again – 243 stairs total. Unfortunately, the catacombs are not accessible friendly. They’re also best to avoid if you have claustrophobia as the tunnels are dark and narrow.
Temperature in the catacombs is around 14 degrees Celsius, or 57 degrees Fahrenheit. You may want to bring a sweater if you’re visiting in the summer. So there you have it!
Will you be adding a visit to the catacombs on your next trip to Paris? Let me know in the comments!
Leave a Reply