Paris III

After returning from Versailles, we made our way that evening to the southern part of the city for a tour of the catacombs. We really liked the tour (even if it was a bit creepy) and had a lot of fun exploring the tunnels underneath the city.

In the late 1700s, some of the cemeteries in Paris were so full, that the weight of bones from mass graves caused nearby buildings to cave in, and the city was forced to take action. Parts of what is now Paris was built on top of limestone deposits, which were mined for building purposes, leaving behind a series of underground tunnels. They began nightly processions with black covered-wagons to carry the bones from the cemeteries to the catacombs, and it took two years to transport most of the bones.

Initially the bones were scattered randomly, but in the early 1800s they began to organise the bones into patterns and added signs and decorations from some of the cemeteries to turn the catacombs into a museum. It’s estimated that the catacombs hold the remains of more than 6 million people and cover about 3 acres of land underneath the city.

During the tour, they mentioned that a team goes in twice a year to do restoration work, and they take apart sections, check the conditions of the bones, and then re-stack them. It sounds like a huge undertaking!

 

At the entrance to the old limestone quarry

 

 

 

The entrance to the ossuary where the bones are stored. The inscription above says “Stop! This is the Empire of the Dead”

 

A pile of femur bones

 

Some of the skulls, bones, and cemetery decorations

 

The whole tour was lined with walls of skulls and bones like these

 

Some of the areas had signs to tell where the bones came from. In this case, they are from the Magdalene Cemetery and were brought to the catacombs in 1850.

 

The bones were stacked in different patterns throughout the tour

 

It was definitely a little creepy to be underground in dark tunnels with 6 million of these guys looking at you!