Quarries
Visitors in the corridors of the Ossuary
Bones brought from the Cimetière des Innocents in April 1786
Avenue René Coty
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Access is via a stairway leading to the Catacombs, 20 meters below ground. Visitors begin by walking through long narrow corridors leading to the space beneath avenue René Coty (formerly avenue Montsouris), where inscriptions on the walls provide the names of the streets above and details of works conducted in the corridors (e.g. reinforcement, in the 18th century, of the Arcueil aqueduct, which was built between 1613 and 1623 at the behest of Marie de Médicis).
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The Port-Mahon corridor
Refers to the so-called “Lutetia” (the Gallo-Roman name for Paris)
geological level, which is 45 millions years old.
Overview of Port-Mahon
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The Quarrymen’s footbath The so-called “Quarrymen’s footbath” (bain de pieds des carriers) is a body of crystal-clear groundwater uncovered by the quarry workers. The water was subsequently used by workers mixing cement required during works in the Catacombs.
The Quarrymen’s footbath
The “Fontaine de la Samaritaine”
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The so-called Fontaine de la Samaritaine (Samaritan woman’s fountain) is a spring surrounded by a small circular space, the walls of which are made of bones from the Cimetière des Innocents.
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5 The Workshop
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The sculptures in the Port-Mahon corridor, which are a highlight of the visit, were created by a quarryman named Décure, who had fought in the armies of Louis XV. In the walls of the quarry, Décure sculpted the fortress of Port-Mahon, the largest town on the island of Minorca, one of the Balearic Islands, where he is believed to have been held prisoner by the English.
The “Workshop” is a disused quarry featuring stacked pillars (made of several pieces of stone) and pillars hewn in situ – two techniques used for supporting the quarry ceilings during Lutetian* limestone quarrying.
The “Workshop”
Entrance to the ossuary
Entrance
Ossuary
The space located before the entrance to the ossuary is used for themed exhibitions. The ossuary door is framed by two stone pillars decorated with white geometric figures on black backgrounds. The lintel bears the alexandrine “Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de la mort” (Stop! This is the empire of death!) in black letters. Further along, other maxims and reflections on the fragility of human life may be found. The visitor is now surrounded by the remains of some six millions Parisians, stacked in the 780 metres of corridors running under the quadrilateral formed by avenue René Coty, rue Hallé, rue Dareau and rue d’Alembert. The first bones were brought in 1786, and simply thrown in the corridors. It was only in around 1810, under the Empire, that General Inspector of Quarries Héricart de Thury (1776-1854) had the Catacombs arranged in an orderly fashion, forming a decorative façade with the skulls and long bones, behind which the remaining bones were piled in a heap.
The Sacellum Crypt: altar and large cross
Ossuary 5 Entrance to the ossuary 6 Fontaine de la Samaritaine 7 Sacellum Crypt 8 Sepulchral Lamp 9 “Gilbert’s Tomb” 10 Fighting at the Réveillon factory (plaque) 11 Françoise Géllain’s tombstone 12 Crypt of the Passion
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The corridor broadens, revealing an altar modelled on an ancient tomb and a chapel known as the “Sacellum Crypt”. A plaque on the left marks the spot where the first bones from the Cimetière des Innocents were placed in April 1786.
Entrance to the ossuary
Quarries 1 Avenue René Coty 2 Workshop 3 Port-Mahon corridor 4 Quarrymen’s footbath
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© Musée Carnavalet / Roger-Viollet
The Catacombs were created at the end of the 18th century to serve as an ossuary. In 1780, Paris’s largest cemetery, the Cimetière des Saints-Innocents, located in the Les Halles district, was closed for public-health reasons at the request of local residents. On 9 November 1785, the Council of State issued a decree requiring the removal of the human remains. The task of choosing and preparing the storage site fell to the quarries department, which had been set up by the Royal Council on 4 April 1777 for the purpose of protecting and reinforcing Paris’s quarries and preventing subsidence. It was decided that bones from all of the city’s cemeteries would be stored in disused limestone quarries in the Tombe-Issoire district. This continued until 1860, notably during the extensive urban development carried out by Haussmann. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Catacombs opened to the public, attracting large numbers of visitors, including such prestigious figures as Francis I of Austria, who visited them in 1814, and Napoleon III, who visited in 1860 with his son, the Prince Imperial.
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Ossuary
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The Catacombs and their history
Quarries
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Overview
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OSSUARY
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Educational corridor
The large cross in the Sacellum Crypt
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Fontaine de la Samaritaine
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Educational corridor 13 Ossuary exit Bones
This barrel-shaped array of skulls and shin bones in the Crypt of the Passion hides a pillar supporting the ceiling of the Catacombs. It was in this crypt that a macabre clandestine concert took place on 2 April 1897, between midnight and two o’clock in the morning. The event was attended by scientists, scholars, artists and distinguished persons of wealth. The two workers who let them in were sacked as soon as their identities were discovered.
The Paris Catacombs and the Archaeological Crypt on place du parvis Notre-Dame are historical sites managed by Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris.
Conditions and accessibility
Guided tours and group visits
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Victims of fighting at the Réveillon factory (plaque)
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The barrel
Plaques commemorating fighting at the Réveillon factory on 18 May 1789 and at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792
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Françoise Géllain’s tombstone
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With the exception of the victims of the massacres of September 1792, those killed in these two key events of the French Revolution are the only people who have ever been buried directly in the Catacombs.
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“Gilbert’s Tomb”
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Sepulchral Lamp
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Cloches de fontis, in French
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Visitor numbers are restricted to 200 at any time. Admission may be delayed for a short time during busy periods. Distance covered: 2 km. Duration of the tour: 45 minutes. No toilet or cloakroom facilities available. 130 steps to go down and 83 steps back up to street level. Temperature: 14°C. The tour is unsuitable for people with heart or respiratory problems, those of a nervous disposition and young children. The Catacombs are not accessible for persons with reduced mobility. Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult.
Individuals: enquire at the information desk. Groups (10 to 20 people): group visits (guided or otherwise) are possible only in the mornings, from Tuesday to Friday inclusive. Booking mandatory six weeks in advance with the Musée Carnavalet cultural affairs department. Monday to friday, from 9 am to 5 pm on +33 (0)1 44 59 58 31 / 32 (fax: +33 (0)1 44 59 58 07).
Warning Any person caught damaging or stealing bones from the City of Paris Catacombs will be prosecuted. All bags are searched at the exit.
Mairie de Paris - DIRECTION DES AFFAIRES CULTURELLES / COMMUNIC’ART / Maquette : Passe Moi le Sel / Photos : C. Fouin, except for the cover and the barrel : D. Messina
The Crypt of the Passion: the barrel
Only photography for strictly personal use is allowed. No tripods or flash.
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Film and photography
Open daily from 10am to 5pm, except Mondays and public holidays Last admission: 4pm.
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On leaving the ossuary, visitors enter the underground educational corridor managed by the General Inspectorate of Quarries. The corridor, which runs under rue Rémy Dumoncel, features consolidated bell-shaped subsidence cavities* illustrating the commonest type of damage sustained by limestone quarries in Paris (i.e. ceiling collapse). The coloured stripes in the cemented cavities represent the alternating geological layers. The 18th century exit stairway leads to 36, rue Rémy Dumoncel.
Françoise Géllain spent much of her life working to have the adventurer Latude (1725-1805) freed from the Bastille, where he was imprisoned on several occasions. He spent some 30 years behind bars, in the Bastille, Vincennes, Charenton and Bicêtre.
“Gilbert’s Tomb” This sarcophagus-shaped feature, which is not actually a tomb, serves to mask reinforcement works. It bears some melancholic verse by the poet Gilbert, who died in 1780 at the age of 29, and is buried elsewhere.
Ossuary exit
Opening hours
Metro and RER: Denfert-Rochereau Metro lines 4 and 6. RER line B. Bus routes 38 and 68
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Access
1, avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy - 75014 Paris Tel. : +33 (0)1 43 22 47 63 www.catacombes.paris.fr et www.carnavalet.paris.fr
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The oldest artefact in the Catacombs is the Sepulchral Lamp – a bowl in which quarrymen kept a fire burning constantly in order to create a draught to make the air circulate in the corridors. When shafts were created, this primitive solution was no longer required.
The only tombstone: Françoise Géllain (Dame Legros)
Paris Catacombs
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The Sepulchral Lamp
Educational corridor
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Ossuary
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Ossuary
The Paris Catacombs A visitors’ guide
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