Everything you need to know about the Catacombs of Paris!

The catacombs of Paris have always fed the imagination and many fantasies of the inhabitants of the capital. But what lies behind this name that intrigues as much as it makes one tremble?

Paris is a big piece of Swiss cheese. The city is indeed "punctured" over more than 300 kilometers by endless underground galleries. These galleries form an immense labyrinth in which it is easy to get lost if you are not a seasoned "cataphile"! While the phantasmagorical name of "catacombs" has quickly been attributed to these galleries, you will see that they are in no way tombs and that their history is quite different. These immense underground streets extend beneath the concrete of the left bank, between Odéon and Montsouris Park, and under some corners of the right bank, such as Belleville, Montmartre, and Ménilmontant.

An uncontrolled designation of origin...

But what story lies beneath these strange undergrounds? The answer is ultimately very simple and much less mysterious than we might imagine. Since the Gallo-Roman era, the inhabitants of Lutetia built their houses from the stone they would fetch from underground. A large part of the catacombs of Paris thus served as quarries for the Gauls. At that time, these were still active, so no other building material was necessary for the construction of the buildings.

But centuries later, these undergrounds took on another face. In 1786, Parisian cemeteries were emptied for reasons of public health. Not knowing what to do with the remains of the 6 million deceased exhumed, it was decided to store them about twenty meters underground... in the ancient quarries of our ancestors. They then took the name "catacombs," in reference to the underground necropolises of ancient Rome, although their original purpose was not to serve as a tomb. The "catacombs" of Paris thus served more as a municipal ossuary than as true burial sites.

The "official" part of these underground quarries is located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The entrance, open to the public, is paid and is located at Place Denfert-Rochereau. These "official" undergrounds extend over 1.7 kilometers and are located twenty meters below the Parisian asphalt. Converted into a museum of the City of Paris (dependent on the Carnavalet museum), the catacombs attract about 300,000 visitors each year. But these curious individuals are far from being the first to want to uncover the mysteries of these undergrounds, as in the 18th century, great names from the History of France entered them one after another. In 1787, Charles X and ladies of the Court descended there. In the following century, it was Napoleon III who, accompanied by his son, wanted to see what was going on. Today, the catacombs of Denfert-Rochereau are open to everyone, but they constitute only a tiny part of a vast underground maze stretching 350 kilometers.

Entering another world

This underground labyrinth indeed extends beneath several arrondissements of the capital. The "hidden," or rather "unofficial" part of the catacombs thus keeps its share of mysteries... but not for everyone. Since the 1970s, many curious individuals have ventured further than the Denfert undergrounds; descending into the catacombs had become, although forbidden due to danger, quite common. Some became passionate about these undergrounds and explored the galleries. And indeed, it is better to be passionate if you wish to risk it; police, unfortunate encounters, leptospirosis (rat disease), rising waters..., all this at 20 meters below the ground (thus lower than the sewers and the metro), at 14 degrees and in an almost religious silence. It is safe to say that traversing these ancient quarries is certainly not a walk in the park for everyone.

In any case, these quarries plunge us into another world where you can discover certain rooms over 200 years old (such as the tomb of Philibert Aspairt, the doorkeeper of Val-de-Grâce who never found his way back in 1793...). Among the must-see rooms, we will note the "room Z," astonishing with its Romanesque-style vaults, and "the beach," a recent room with a floor strewn with sand where cataphiles love to organize parties. Finally, the "castle room" had unfortunately been vandalized in the past, but has since been restored for the greatest happiness of cataphiles. This room houses various sculptures of gargoyles, benches, and a table. At the back of this room stands a lovely reconstruction of a medieval castle.

The undergrounds of Paris still contain many other ossuaries, unknown to the public because inaccessible, and whose mysteries will remain intact...

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