Underground Tunnels Paris Catacombs
The catacombs the final resting place of 6 million parisians are an underground network of tunnels and old world stone quarries that were converted into a cemetery in the 18th 19th centuries.
Underground tunnels paris catacombs. An eerie yet celebrated city of the dead the catacombs lie silently in stark contrast to the bustling streets of paris above. The paris catacombs tour explores some of these paris underground tunnels and halls decorated with bones from the middle ages. The catacombs of paris are underground ossuaries in paris france which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate paris ancient stone quarries. As you enter the building you descend down a narrow stone spiral staircase ending up 19 metres underground in the darkness of the quarry tunnels.
When the quarrying ceased some of the tunnels were used for growing the popular paris mushrooms as they thrived in the damp dark conditions. The catacombs are in fact the quarries from which a large proportion of the limestone for paris s hausmannian buildings was extracted hundreds of years ago. The catacombs of paris are 15th century underground quarries that were reused years later for stocking the bones of disappeared cemeteries in paris. Extending south from the barrière d enfer former city gate this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city s overflowing cemeteries.
Such activity has completely ceased in recent years and now the city s mushrooms still bear the prestigious name but are grown in the provincial areas to the north of paris. Beneath an unassuming building in place denfert rochereau in southern paris is the gateway to a subterranean world of tunnels caverns and mass graves beneath the city the paris catacombs. Some areas are open to the public as museums but since 1955 entrance to the majority of the underground space is prohibited.