We wanted to see the Catacombs and decided to book a tour to avoid the queues which are usually 2-3 hours long because the people who can go in at one time are limited. That was a good decision. Our tour guide Miguel Coelho - miglcoelho@gmail.com was excellent. He is an expert on the Catacombs, as well as the rest of Paris and explained their history and French history in a way that I've never understood before. He also speaks excellent English so could explain nuances that some guides don't have the ability to do. We did 2 more tours with Miguel on our own - one of the left bank and the other of the Louvre. His charges are very reasonable - 75 Euro for just the two of us which is about what we were paying for a group tour. We recommend him highly.
The catacombs are the underground storage of the bones of at least 6.1 million people. Parisians originally buried their dead outside of the city but with the arrival of Christianity it was deemed important to bury the dead on consecrated ground - that is around Churches and these were all within the city limits. This made for quite a crowd of graves. By the early 12th century a central mass burial ground was made for those who could not afford a church burial. So a big hole was dug and bodies thrown in until it was full when another one would be dug. I'll leave you to imagine the results of all those decaying bodies nearby with the seepage and smell resulting and of course the spread of disease. No wonder the Kings didn't want to live in Paris during this period. Plus the Paris water supply was mainly from wells so seepage into the water supply was a health issue.
Apparently the revenue from burials was one of the Churches biggest sources of revenue so they were reluctant to recommend parishioners used the new cemeteries outside the city when they were formed. Although King Louis 16th was aware of the problem and wanted to rectify it the Church thought that they would lose parishioners if they let people be buried elsewhere so the church denied that a problem existed and bodies continued to be kept in the city confines.
Bones were often removed from the holes and piled up nearby when they dried forming "charniers."
Paris is built on limestone. Most of Paris's buildings are built of this limestone which gives it it's wonderful sheen in different lights. The limestone has been quarried from under Paris - mainly on the left bank which was on the outskirts when the quarries were commenced. There are 300 kilometres of interconnected quarries under Paris. A lot of quarries but then there's a lot of buildings in Paris and some was exported as well. This means that a large part of Paris today has corridors of quarries underneath it which can cause instability and there is a danger of sink holes forming. When some sink holes formed, around 1770 and people fell in and died the locals believed that it was hell opening and the devil coming for them and there was understandably much public concern.
In 1777 a Quarries Department was formed by the Royal Council to map and assess the tunnels safety and reinforce them when needed. This process continues to this day. Apparently insurance still costs more in Paris for dwellings that have quarries underneath.
In 1786 the head of department overseeing the quarries renovations - Alexandre Lenoir recommended that bones from the city be stored in the disused limestone quarries. At first it was done secretly but the area was consecrated and then it became official and only ceased in 1860.
Bones were piled randomly at first but later stored neatly in different groups, depending on where they'd come from. They have been open for public viewing since the beginning of the 19th century.
I was ready for it to be quite a macabre experience to see all the bones and it sort of was but Miguel explained it well and the area of quarries that we visited with bones was relatively small compared to the number of disused quarries that we walked through. The feat of building the quarries in the beginning and their history is a very big story in itself. Miguel explained that by seeing the bones we were facing our own mortality in a way.
Long corridors of quarries before getting to the actual catacombs. Some of the piles behind these skulls and femurs go for several metres.
This shows a potential crack forming in the tunnel walls which has been marked and will be monitored for changes and reinforced if necessary.
Another aspect of the quarries is that there is a sub culture of people in Paris today called Cataphiles. Miguel said that they number in their thousands. They enter the quarries from manholes etc and some even live there. There is a separate police squad to catch and fine them because it is illegal but with 300 kilometres of tunnels it's a bit of a cat and mouse activity. Many come down only at weekends and hold parties. The part of the quarries open for the catacombs is a very small part of the total and cataphiles frequent the other parts. Some do graffiti paintings but the most dangerous are those that try and dig between tunnels potentially creating instability. Another side of Paris I guess.
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