The bones of almost six million deceased are piled up in the catacombs of Paris, the largest necropolis in the world. The Parisians say they are "catacombs", but they were originally an underground quarry, and were not meant to bury but to celebrate dead people, alike the catacombs of Rome for example. The catacombs of Paris are in fact the Municipal Ossuary.
They are a town planning project, carried out for the healthiness of the capital city; the aim was to remedy to the cemeteries’ overpopulation.
The quarry is located under the capital city and stretches out to about 300 kilometres. The catacombs stretch out to 1.7 kilometres, 20 meters under the ground, and their official entrance is situated on the “place Denfert-Rochereau”.
During the 18th century, Paris cemeteries were packed ; particularly the graveyard of the “Saints-Innocents”, which ground had to be heightened by two meters higher because of its overpopulation. Some Parisian cemeteries having been used for over ten centuries, they threatened the population of fearsome epidemics.
Citizens complained about the stinking smell that invaded the capital city, but in spite of that, the situation never changed.
The first public reports of salubrity were published in 1554 and were already alarming. They were confirmed by the Royal Science Academy in 1737.
In February 1780, an incident lead to the closing of the cemetery of the Saints-Innocents; a cellar wall located nearby collapsed due to the corpse heavy weight.
Once the cemetery was closed the problem remained and there were still risks of spreading diseases. To improve the situation, police lieutenant Lenoir decided to use the old quarry that had recently been reinforced by the General Inspection of the Quarry.
With the clergy’s agreement and under the management of Louis Thiroux de Crosne, bones were transferred from the cemeteries to the quarry of the Tombe-Issoire, that would lately become the catacombs of Paris. Charles Axel Guillaumot was in charge of the transfer of about six million corpses.
Every night, up to 1814, bones were poured out in the quarry by way of a shaft, and piled out in ossuaries. Priests paid tribute to millions of Parisians, of which were great figures of history, like Rabelais, Mansart, Jean Baptiste Lully, Danton, Robespierre, Colbert, Molière, Fouquet, Lavoisier, Racine, Blaise Pascal, Marat, Montesquieu…
These processions, occurring under the dumfounded look of the Parisians, were very ceremonious at the beginning and became routine with the years.
Louis-Etienne Héricart de Thury was in charge of the fitting-out of the catacombs; he punctuated to corridors with citations, epitaphs and commemorative plaques.
The society was quickly attracted by the catacombs, and some people have asked to be allowed to visit them as early as from the beginning of the 19th century. That way, Charles X, François Ist of Austria, Napoléon III, and lately the chancellor Bismarck were allowed in the catacombs.
On the April 2nd 1897, a clandestine concert took place in the catacombs proposing the macabre œuvres of the most famous composers, like Chopin, Saint Saëns and Beethoven, all performed by amateur musicians.
Nowadays still, number of curious visit the catacombs because a part of them is opened to the public during the day. Visitors can walk along the bones of million anonymous but also famous ones.
A community called the “cataphilie” became famous in 1980. Cataphils are passionate by the visit of the catacombs, and have a great knowledge of the galleries and their several entrances.
Despite the bans, some people break in the catacombs or the rest of the quarry. Beside some rare inscriptions left on the walls by notables of the 19th century, tags and marks of damage are often found, and a few bones are regularly stolen.
