Alone in the Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs which are located at the Place Denfert Rochereau are 20 meters below ground and as you wind your way down through the stone passages, you have the sense of descending deep into the underground.

photo above by Campola courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

As I walked slowly through the dim ossuary caverns deep beneath the Paris streets, where bones were artfully stacked as high as my head and skulls peered out at me with dark empty stares, one thought kept creeping into my mind.  Who were these people?  What kind of lives did they have? How did they die?  Did their loved ones cry at their passing?

The ancient bones of citizens of Paris are located in what was originally a historic stone quarry left over from the building of the great capital. These underground workings supplied the huge quantities of stone required to build Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and city ramparts.  

It seemed a little sacrilegious to be casually walking through this resting place, a few small groups joking, some taking selfies in front of a dead stranger’s bones, but I admit this didn’t stop me from joining the people who were slowly wandering through this bizarre collection.  Fortunately, at the time of my visit at the beginning of January, I was mostly by myself. 

The creation of the Catacombs began when the Cemetery of the Innocents (near Saint-Eustache, in the district of Halles) which had been in use for nearly ten centuries became a source of infection for all residents.  It was the first great ancient Paris cemetery to be emptied.

Above Reproduction: Le cimetière des Saint-Innocents vers 1550

  The transfer of the remains began after the blessing and consecration of the ossuary in April 7, 1786 and continued until 1788.  The bones were always transferred at night and included a ceremony consisting of a procession of priests in robes who sang the burial service along the route taken by the huge wagons carrying remains. 

The ossuary now contains the remains of approximately six million Parisians, transferred there gradually between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries as graveyards were being closed because of the risk they posed to public health.

Alone at intervals in the series of cavern rooms and tunnel turns gave me time to really appreciate the lonely atmosphere of the mass grave.  I was able to imagine the huge wagons of bones which were each covered decorously by a black veil as they hauled the remains of the citizens of Paris. 

The official website of the Catacombs indicates that “the bones from several graveyards and churches in Paris undoubtedly include the remains of many famous names from previous centuries including, amongst others, the writers François Rabelais (between 1483 and 1494 -1553), .... and Charles Perrault (1628 - 1703), the sculptor François Girardon (1628 - 1715), the painter Simon Vouet (I590 - 1649), the architects Salomon de Brosse (1571-1626), .... and also Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646 - 1708).

During the Revolution, people were buried directly in the Catacombs, including members of the Swiss Guard killed in the storming of the Tuileries palace on 10 August 1792 and victims of the massacres in September 1792. The remains of victims of the guillotine transferred there from their original burial pits include Lavoisier (1743 - 1794), ....Camille and Lucile Desmoulins (1760 - 1794 and 1771 - 1794), Danton (1759 - 1794) and Robespierre (1758 - 1794).”

Who knows which of those skeleton heads might have been one of these notable historic figures!

 From the time of their creation, the Catacombs have been a place “tourists” have wanted to visit including the Count of Artois, future Charles X, who descended into the ossuary in the company of his court ladies in 1787.  Emperor Francois 1st of Austria viewed the bones in 1814 and Napoleon III entered the caverns in 1860 with his son.  Visitors to Paris have been trekking down into the Catacombs ever since.

Eventually, the name “Catacombs” was given to this ossuary in reference to the Catacombs of Rome, originally the name given to an ancient cemetery near the Appian Way.  I have to say….. The Catacombs of Paris is one of the most interesting places to visit in Paris and really makes you aware of the centuries of citizens who have lived, worked, played and loved and died in this beautiful city.