What is there to see at the catacombs of Paris? Why is it one of the more unusual visits?

Visiting the catacombs is probably one of the most unusual and interesting visits you can do in Paris.
The name “catacombs” was given to some of the old underground Paris quarries whose exploitation dates back to the construction of Lutetia. Starting in the thirteenth century, the quarries went underground to provide the large number of stones needed to build the monuments of Paris.
The catacombs tell part of Paris’s history.

The history of the ancient quarries of Paris

It was in 1774, when various collapses occurred, that it was realized that the monuments, churches and most public roads in the southern neighborhoods of Paris were in danger of collapsing because of the uncontrolled exploitation of the underground Paris quarries. Three years later, the Inspectorate General of the Quarries was created, headed then by Charles Axel Guillaumot. It was only in 1811 that the exploitation of the underground quarries of Paris became prohibited.
Since the early twentieth century, 80 kilometers of public roadways have been consolidated and public buildings have been built into their foundations over an area of around 1,000 km². To carry out all this work, the Quarry Department has built more than 125 kilometers of inspection galleries.

The map of the ancient Paris quarries in 1896 shows the extent of the galleries. Today the entire network of tunnels stretches 250km.

Charles Axel Guillaumot, the architect of the catacombs

In 1785, the landslide of a mass grave in the Cemetery of the Innocents brings about asphyxiation and tumors are found in workers who labored among pestilential odors caused by the accumulation of insufficiently buried corpses. The Inspectorate of the Quarries was responsible for finding a place to accommodate the two million skeletons.
Charles Axel Guillaumot had the work executed at “Tombe-Issoire,” in Petit Montrouge and the “Catacombs of Paris” were established in 1786, on eleven thousand square meters of land. Fifteen months were needed to carry all the bones there under the cloak of night.

VISITING

Even though it’s not a ghost train, the visit can sometimes seem like a “scary game” that is actually quite fun. You descend by a narrow spiral staircase to reach the darkness and silence at 20 meters underground. There, for more than 2,700 meters, you can check out cool, damp galleries to observe the bones and skulls present for hundreds of years, piled up in caves and inlaid in the walls.

Famous men who are buried there

Among the bones from the old cemeteries of Paris are “probably kept” the remains of many figures, such as François Rabelais and Jean de la Fontaine. During the Revolution, some of the dead were buried directly at the Catacombs, including those of victims of the September 1792 massacres and the remains of the guillotined who were transferred there from their first burial pits.

Guided small group tours

The Catacombs of Paris also offer a detailed ninety-minute tour. A thorough route where visitors can completely check out the site with, among other things, Decure’s sculptures, the Quarrymen’s Foot-bath, the Crypt of Sacellum, the Sepulchral Lamp and the Tomb of Gilbert.
Tour price: €35

The “cataphiles” go there at night through the sewers

And then there are the catacomb enthusiasts: the cataphiles. They meet up there at night in order to walk around, have parties, or for the fiercest among them, dig new galleries.
They gear up in boots or waders, and a caving lamp at minimum. They sometimes organize orientation sessions for people from outside they call “tourists.”
Sometimes real underground “night clubs,” or even acoustic instrument concerts are improvised and word is spread at the last minute. It’s illegal but good natured.

“The Sea in Paris” Exhibition

As of March 20, 2016, currently at the Catacombs is the “Sea in Paris” exhibition.
The sea has invaded the Paris Basin for 8 million years, between 48 and 50 million years BC. It was a tropical sea. 800 shellfish species were listed there, but the aquatic fauna also contained crocodiles, turtles, 150 species of fish and many species of sharks and rays.
The exhibition explains how the accumulation of calcium deposits forged, for 8 million years, the subsoil of the Parisian basin.

Paris Catacombs
1, avenue du colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy
75014 Paris
Price: 12 euros
Open every day from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. except Mondays and holidays
Free for those younger than 18 years old
See the website