| Catacombes tips and photos posted by real travelers and Paris locals.
Place Denfert-Rochereau, 14e
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My 1st trip to Paris the Catacombes was on my list of MUST SEES but I missed my window of opportunity (open 2 hrs at 2 separate times a day & closed Monday), so I HAD TO see it 2nd trip. Just thought it would be cool - sort of a gothic thing. Referred to my 1st trip as a Gothic Tour of Paris, not hard to accomplish due to the many gothic influences/things.
Second time 'round to Paris the 1st thing I did was go to the Catacombes. I even left my best friend, Kristin, sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for them to fix up the room while I went off on my jaunt! But she understood my obsession & she had no interest in seeing smelly, old bones.
The walk-through only lasts about half an hour, it's very easy to get to from the Denfert-Rochereau Métro station (you come up out onto Place Denfert-Rochereau - see 1st photo - and it's just across the street - see 2nd photo).
It was very creepy and cool. Highly unusual. There are many signs (in French) reflecting/philosophizing on death in general and on these bones in particular. Signs asking for moments of silence, requests for prayer, etc.. It is weird realizing that the bones ARE real people and the sad realization hits home when you see a hole in the "artwork" where a skull is missing. However, there are precautions now against the stealing of these bones. They do search your bags, etc. when you enter and when you exit.
Click here for a cool website with some fantastic photos! And here's an interesting article the Guardian wrote last September regarding a truly "underground" cinéma by unknown inhabitants housed in the supposedly inaccessible parts of the quarries.
PRICE: 5€ (2002 prices)
STEPS TO CLIMB WHEN EXITING: 83
TOTAL HIKE LENGTH: 1 km 70 (noted from the sign at entrance)
To find out more about les Catacombes you can buy this book.
Photos: Nov '07 Leave a Comment Phone: 01 43 22 47 63Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Métro Station: Denfert-Rochereau EXIT ADDRESS: #36 Rue Remy Dumoncel (east of Rue Halle) in the 14th arrondissement near the Alésia Métro station.Website: http://www.showcaves.com/english/fr/misc/Catacombs.html
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During the era of late1700's, the cemeteries were filling up with cadavers (dead people) and it was decided to dig up and put in them in the caves. Eventually the theme took off so well, that nearly 30,000 were down under and stacked neatly in patterns and by parts. How beautiful. Save room for daddy. Then someone got the idea to make art of those skulls and bones, so you see them in various states of being stacked and presented for display to tourists. I think creamation would have eliminated this problem. Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Metro Station: Denfert-Rochereau
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 catacombs by doug48 |
 Denfert-Rochereaux
Catacombs by JehcekahLeave a Comment
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Wanna see more bones and skullls than you can imagine? Visit the Catacombs under Paris. These bones came from thousands of dead intered in Paris cemataries when the government decided to empty all the church graveyards in the city to make room for more/other development. Please remember that this tour requires going down a 60 foot, very tight, spirel starwell, then a very long walk to the bones thru caverns and another 60 foot climb up a spirel starwell. And dont play songs on the craniums like I did, and get busted... Leave a Comment Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Metro Station: Denfert-Rochereau
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This is a very cool little tour that will take you less than an hour and really shows you how Paris grew from the original settlement on the islands (Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis??) to what it has become today. It's a must see for people who are into history.
Entrance to the Paris Sewer Museum is at Pont d'Alma in front of 93 Quai d'Orsay, near the Place de la Résistance. The museum is open Saturday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (it closes at 4 p.m. from October through April, and shuts down for three weeks in January.) Directions: near the Place de la Résistance
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It is a lot to view down under (80 feet)and the tour is worth it. Skulls everywhere. Napoleon first ordered the resurrection of bodies from on to of ground in cemeteries because they would float up with high water, or he may have just wanted to expand the city growth. Around 1785, they dug up over 40,000 bodies and since they were "cured" stacked them up. The caves were first used to dig out limestone for building, and many acres were carved out, but the trail showing the bones is only about 1 mile long, but that is a lot of bones Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Metro Station: Denfert-Rochereau
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If lower level attractions are more your thing, then make a trip to the Catacombs.
The Catacombs are deep underground tunnels lying beneath the bustling city of Paris... filled with the bones of millions of Parisians, placed here about 200 years ago to take the pressure off incredibly overcrowded cemeteries. Thousands of these skulls are of plague victims.
The construction of the catacombs began in 1785 when the first load of bodies started arriving to be placed in the tombs. The first cemetery to take part in the new development was the Cemetery of the Innocents.
A very interesting place to visit, albeit slightly nervewracking! Leave a Comment Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Metro Station: Denfert-Rochereau
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WHAT I CAN REMEMBER IS THAT WE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES...SO I DIDN'T!!!!! I REMEMBER MY SWISS FRIENDS SAYING THAT THE LAST TIME THEY WERE IN PARIS ..THAT THEY HAD MISSED GOING INTO THIS PLACE BECAUSE IT WAS CLOSED..AND MAYBE THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE ENGLISH WORD FOR "CATACOMBES". .OTHERWISE I MIGHT NOT HAVE GONE WITH THEM. .HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!
I DO REMEMBER PAYING 5 EURO TO ENTER AND ALSO THEM CHECKING OUR BACK-PACKS BEFORE WE WENT DOWN ABOUT TWO OR THREE FLIGHTS OF STAIRS!!!!
ALSO REMEMBER MY ONE FRIEND ASKING ME IF I KNEW WHAT THAT SIGN ABOVE THE ENTRANCE SAID...I DIDN'T!!!! SO THEY SAID IT SAYS" YOU ARE NOW ENTERING DEATH"!! WHAT A WAY TO START THE TOUR ..HUH??!! HEHEHEHE!!! The Catacombs of Paris is a famous burial place in Paris, France. It is a network of subterranean tunnels and rooms located in what were Roman-era limestone quarries. The quarries were converted into a mass tomb near the end of the 18th century. It is most widely known as "the catacombs", but the official title is "les carrières de Paris" or "the quarries of Paris."Burial use in the depleted quarries was established in 1786 by the order of Monsieur Thiroux de Crosne, Lt. General of Police, and by Monsieur Guillaumot, Inspector General of Quarries. At the time, the Les Halles district in the middle of the city was suffering from disease , due to contamination caused by improper burials and mass graves in churchyard cemeteries, especially the large Cimetière des Innocents . It was decided to discreetly remove the bones and place them in the abandoned quarries. Leave a Comment Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Metro Station: Denfert-Rochereau
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When the Romans came to Paris, a long time ago, they needed rock to built their houses and other constructions with. They searched in the area where they first settled: at the southbank of the Seine-river. Here they dug kilometres of tunnels to get as many rocks out as possible. After the Roman period almost all the buildings (except the Arènes de Lutèce) were covered or destroyed, but the tunnels stayed.
For many centuries these tunnels were more or less abandoned, until the plaque-epidemic broke out in the Medievals. Millions of Parisians died in a short time and after a while all the cemetaries in the city were full with dead bodies, sometimes even metres above the ground! Something had to be done, and then the Roman tunnels were remembered again.
In 1785 the huge work was started to move the millions of skeletons to the tunnels. The work was done in the night, not to shock all the people, and once the bones were inside they were perfectly organised to keep a structure in the tunnels and to save space.
In the tunnels signs were added to indicate where the bones originally came from, and at the beginning of the bone-collection a sign was made "Arrète! Ici c'est l'empire de la mort" meaning "Stop, this is the empire of death".
The tunnels were used for the last time during the Second World War, when the French Resistant had a base here.
Today the tunnels are opened for the public. It is possible to walk around the tunnels, in a route of 2 kilometres at a depth of about 20 metres. Be prepared that the tunnels are dark, cold and wet, and of course that the millions of bones around you can be shocking. Leave a Comment Directions: Open Tuesday-Sunday 2-4 (also 9-11am at weekends) Metro Station: Denfert-Rochereau
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