Catacombes de Paris

The Catacombs of Paris

Useful Information

F090-018 — Catacombes de Paris. Public Domain.

F090-019 — Catacombes de Paris. Public Domain.

photography — Catacombes de Paris. Public Domain.

Location:	1 av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris. Metro Denfert-Rochereau. (48.833850, 2.332426)
Open:	All year Tue-Sun 9:45-20:30, last entry 19:30. Guided tours Tue 18, Thu 13. Online booking strongly recommended. [2023]
Fee:	Adults EUR 29, Children (5-17) EUR 10, Children (0-4) free, Adults (18-26) EUR 23, Students EUR 23, Disabled free, Unemployed free. Audioguide included. [2023]
Classification:	Rock Mine catacombs.
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=300,000 m, Ar=11,000 m², T=14 °C,
Guided tours:	L=1,500 m, VR=20 m, D=60 min, St=243, self-guided with audioguide. V=250,000/a [2008].
Photography:	allowed, no flash or tripod
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Les Catacombes de Paris, 1 av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris, Tel: +33-1-43-22-47-63
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

60 B.C.	first tunnels built as Roman quarries.
1774	a series of basement wall collapses around the Holy Innocents' Cemetery makes the problem of the city’s overflowing cemeteries urgent.
04-APR-1777	Inspection Générale des Carrières created by Louis XVI to survey the quarries of Paris, and to fortify the foundation to prevent fontis (collapses).
1785	350 of these underground rock quarries were converted into subterranean mass graves.
1786	nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris’s cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.
1809	Catacombs were opened to the public by appointment.
1810	Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, director of the Inspection Générale des Carrières, had renovations done to transform the caverns into a visitable mausoleum.
1850	four visits a year.
1867	monthly visits.
1874	reopened to the public after renovations and the construction of accesses at Place Denfert-Rochereau.
1900	due to the World’s Fair Exposition the ossuary is open daily.
19-JUN-1994	catacombs opened to the public.
2004	police discovers a fully equipped cinema in the catacombs under the Trocadéro.
SEP-2009	closed after human bones were scattered.
19-DEC-2009	reopened.
2017	thieves break into a cellar from the catacombs and steal more than €250,000 of wine.
2017	inauguration of new exit and bookstore.
2019	inauguration of new entrance in the restored Ledoux house.

Description

The name Catacombes de Paris is derived from the usage of former quarries to store human remains. But actually catacombs are artificial chambers used as graves, this site is an ossuary or bone house, where the remaining bones of already buried were relocated. See Subterranea catacombs for more details. The name Catacombes de Paris is sometimes used for all the underground limestone quarries of Paris. It has become a sort of synonym for all the historic underground structure of Paris. But actually the ossuary is only a small part of the vast network, which is located below Place Denfert-Rochereau. And the tourist site, which is open to the public, is only a small part of the ossuary, which was prepared for visits. The ossuary is the biggest of its kind in the world with an area of 11,000 m² on which the bones of 6 Million people are stored. This site is a cemetery after all, and using it as a tourist site is not very decent. So they do not really promote the site to tourists, but they are open to the public and listed on tourist sites.

At the end of the 18th century, the government began converting several subterranean rooms into mass graves. This was necessary to meet desperate overcrowding in the medieval cemeteries in the center of Paris, which also became a huge hygienic problem. The most affected was the cemetery of Saints Innocents, which was also called Les Halles after the neighbouring marketplace Les Halles. At the same time, there were collapses of quarries in the southern part of the city, which required mine renovation and reinforcement. Both issues were within the jurisdiction of the Police Prefect, Police Lieutenant-General Alexandre Lenoir. He founded the Inspection Générale des Carrières in 1777 to survey the quarries of Paris, and to fortify them to prevent collapses. From 1782 the mines were renovated, and so he had the idea to use the already stabilized parts as an ossuary, which became finally law in 1785. They chose an easily accessible site, the former Tombe-Issoire quarries under the plain of Montrouge, which was at that time outside the city limits. From 1785 to 1786, during 15 months, millions of bones and rotting corpses were transported from the unsanitary city cemetery in Les Halles to this place. It was a monumental project to transport the bones in huge carts at night across the city. It took two years to empty the majority of Paris’s cemeteries.

In the first years the bones were just dumped. Nevertheless, the Catacombs of Paris became a curiosity for more privileged Parisians. Just before the Revolution (1799), Charles X threw wild parties in the catacombs. But soon the public was interested to see them, and in 1809 the Catacombs were opened to the public by appointment. In 1810, Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury became director of the Inspection Générale des Carrières. He organized renovations to transform the caverns into a visitable mausoleum. The bones were sorted and stacked into patterns, created a room showing various skeletal deformities, and a display of the various minerals found under Paris. Both do not exist any more. He is also responsible for the monumental tablets with the ominous warning inscriptions:

Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort
Stop! This is the empire of death

And here they are, in huge piles, arranged as crosses, as faces and in other different configurations. The site was first open only a few times a year with the permission of an authorized mine inspector. The number of open days increased, and a massive flow of visitors degraded the ossuary. There was also opposition from the Church to the public display of human remains. And finally, in 1830 the open days were abandoned, and in 1833 visits with permission were also stopped. But due to public demand, from 1850 four visits a year were allowed, and in 1867 monthly, then bi-weekly. From the 1900 World’s Fair Exposition the ossuary was open daily. During World War II the French Resistance set up its headquarters here.

The quarry also has additional sights, which are not related to the ossuary. They can only be seen during the guided tours and are not accessible on the self-guided visit. There is a series of stone sculptures which were cut into the rock by artists among the quarry workers. Most were from a worker named Nella, who made them in the late 18th century. One of the more spectacular is a very detailed monolithic palace. There are reliefs along the walls showing other buildings, and one chamber contains a sculpture of the harbour of Menorca. He was captive there for many years. According to legend, he weakened the pillars with his sculptures and thus was finally killed by a collapsing ceiling. Finally, a spiral staircase is reached, which ends in a pool of water. It was built to check the level of the groundwater table, not to get drinking water.

The ossuary with the name Catacombes de Paris is open daily and is one of 14 musées municipaux (municipal museums). The public establishment Paris Musées was founded 2013 and strengthens the strategic management of the network. The catacombs are now very competently managed, but the entrance fees have massively increased. On the other hand, the tour was completely renovated with a new exit, allowing one way tours, a new entrance in the restored Ledoux house, and a new bookstore. The tours are self-guided but there is an audioguide included. Real guided tours are available only twice-weekly, take 2 h, and are only in French.