The history of the Paris catacombs, the city's underground tunnels of death home to over 6 million corpses

Elias ChavezJan 14, 2024, 22:55 IST

A skull in crossbones is inlaid into a wall of bones.OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/Getty Images

The Paris catacombs were constructed after mass gravesites started to pollute the soil and leech smells.
The catacombs were originally the site of limestone mines used during the Roman Empire.

Mass graves had been in use for centuries in Paris, reaching a point where some graves held 1,500 bodies at a time. The smells and gasses were so bad that, in one instance, three gravediggers died from the gasses in a church vault.

Years of population boom, plagues, and wars overwhelmed Paris cemeteries. The Holy Innocents' Cemetery, in use since the 12th century, took the overflow from other cemeteries and surrounding hospitals, but it became too much.

When 100 feet of the street collapsed into an old limestone mine under Paris, Parisians had to find a new solution to address the overflow of dead bodies.

It all started with the Holy Innocents' Cemetery.

An engraving showing the mass graves at Holy Innocents' cemetery.Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Holy Innocents' became a mass grave site with pits holding up to 1,500 bodies at a time.

A figure of death walking with an upside-down baby.Sepia Times/Getty Images

Eventually, the mass of bodies became too much and started spilling into the surrounding neighborhood.

Men talk amongst the piles of bones in the Catacombs.Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Burials at Holy Innocents' were halted, and the city had to find a new way to handle the corpses.

A drawing of the chapel at Holy Innocents' cemetery.Roger Viollet/Getty Images

The solution became the Paris Municipal Ossuary, popularly known as the catacombs.

Piles of bones in a section of the Paris catacombs.Roger Viollet/Getty Images

The city began the process of moving millions of bodies from graveyards around Paris in 1786.

Rows of skulls and bones line the walls of Paris' catacombs.PATRICK KOVARIK/Getty Images

It took 12 years to move all the bones from between 6 to 7 million bodies.

A man walking along a hallway of bones.Vagn Hansen/Getty Images.

Inspector Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury is responsible for organizing the bones into the iconic shapes they take today.

A man walks through the Paris catacombs passing by inlays made of bones.Print Collector/Getty Images

During the French Revolution, bodies were buried directly in the catacombs.

Engraving of the mass attack on the Bastille fortress, igniting the French Revolution, Paris, France, July 14, 1789Kean Collection/Getty Images

Despite its sprawling 2,000 acres, only 1.25 miles are open to the public.

People gather in the catacombs holding candles for light.Keystone-France/Getty Images

I stayed at Dolly Parton's new resort in a $500 mountain-view room. Being close to her theme park wasn't even the best part.

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