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The Catacombs of Paris
Introduction
The Catacombs of Paris is an underground ossuary which was organised in a renovated section
of the city's huge network of underground tunnels and caverns in the late 18th century. It's located
south of the historical city gate (named the 'Barriere d'Enfer') which hold the remains of almost six
million people. It became a tourist attraction on small scale from the early 19th before being opened
to the public on a regular basis from 1867. Here you can now walk within a maze of the Paris
underground tunnels complete with storage alcoves which go up at least 20 feet and contain millions
of bones. The various sides of these bone piles possess designs which have been arranged with the
skulls in a sort of pattern.
The story of the catacombs is a fascinating one. Prior to 1810 the Paris catacombs were known as
Paris' Montrouge stone quarries. In their first years, the Catacombs were mainly a bone repository,
but from 1810, they were renovated, transforming them into a real sepulture on a par with any mausoleum.
In addition to rearranging the skulls and femurs housed in the mausoleum into the placement which
remains in the catacombs today, the tombstones and cemetery decorations were placed to complement
the walls of bones.