The Paris Catacombs

I saw the Paris Catacombs on a friend’s Instagram story. He went to Paris and stopped at the Catacombs. From that moment I knew that the Catacombs would be one of the first things I am going to see in Paris. It is a very popular tourist attraction, so I highly suggest buying tickets in advance, we had to change the day we went there because they had no availability on the day I had in my plan.

The catacombs can be visited with a self-guided tour with an audio guide. Their history is captivating. These were once quarries, then buildings in Paris started to collapse because of unstable foundations built on top of the quarries. This led to the reinforcement of the quarries to prevent more sinkholes. The labyrinth was, after that, used as an ossuary for various cemeteries starting from 1786. It opened to the public as an attraction in 1809.

Not all the catacombs are open to the visitors, but even so, it takes about an hour to see all. The length of the tour is 1.5 km and the exit is different from the entry. There is a gift shop at the exit from where you can buy all sort of interesting things. I bought 2 books on the catacombs which were great. Another interesting detail is that there are 243 steps in total, 131 steps to go down and 112 steps to climb up.

There is quite a long way to go before the ossuary is reached. At this point there are details on the audio guide about the quarry.

This is one of the many reinforcement pillars installed. This one is from 1878, but there are pillars from the late 1700s. The consolidation of the quarries underneath Paris started in 1777, at the request of King Louis XVI. Almost 10 years later the first bones were transferred to the ossuary.

The street names above are marked in the tunnels, so people can see where they are.

The entrance to the ossuary is beautiful. There is also a sign “written in stone”, as you can see below.

From 1809 visitors were able to see the bones. Initially the visits were made by appointment. Many famous visitors walked on the same paths as visitors today, about 550,000 of them each year.

Visiting a place like this is unique, both in what it shows and how one feels seeing so many remains in one place. I highly recommend it. Enjoy the pictures.