Parisian Walkways

Today's one and only trip was to the Paris Catacombs, which consisted of a two-metro, forty-five minute journey before a three and a half-hour wait at the entrance.  But actually it wasn't that bad... until we got near the front of the queue and saw people with tickets walking straight in!  But then we were told their tickets bought online (not an option we found) were more than twice the price of ours and they had to pay for the kids, so really the three+ hour wait wasn't so bad after all.  And we got really good at Charades while we were waiting...

Anyway, the ossuary (a container or room in which dead people's bones are placed), known as the catacombs, was created in the late 18th century in abandoned underground quarries dating from the 15th century in the south of Paris near Montparnasse.  The first bones were transferred here from what was the largest Parisian cemetery at the time, the Saints-Innocents Cemetery located in the Les Halles district, which was closed in 1780.

The underground tunnels were actually forgotten about until, in the mid-18th century, some of them caved in, causing a general panic among the population of Paris.  As a result, the Quarry Department was created by King Louis XVI on 4th April 1777, with the aim of protecting and fortifying the Parisian subsoil.  Some parts were filled in while others were reinforced with support walls and pillars.  The strengthening works were numbered by the engineers, who carved their initials and the date into them.

The Paris authorities then launched an ambitious project to turn the abandoned underground quarries - which in those days were located outside the capital at la Tombe-Issoire, under the Montrouge plain - into an ossuary.  The quarries were rapidly strengthened and the Catacombs were consecrated on 7th April 1786.  Other bones from deconsecrated Paris cemeteries were transferred until January 1788, and then again between 1842 and 1860.  Although the Paris catacombs are the largest underground necropolis in the world (there are around 6 million skeletons, which we worked out meant approximately 1.2 million bones), they cover no more than 1/800th of the area of the underground quarries in Paris.

Beginning in the early 19th century, the Catacombs were opened to the public, creating a wave of curiosity that attracted a growing number of visitors.  And a three hour wait.

Access to the galleries is via a staircase of 130 stairs leading 20 meters underground.  These long narrow corridors follow the paths of the streets above ground, though signs no longer exist indicating the names of the streets you are under.

The number of the worksite, initials and year engraved on the stone
by the architects and engineers of the Quarry Inspection Department.

Toothing stone was a space used for
natural ventilation in the gallery

Made when the ossuary was opened to the
public, the black mark on the quarry ceiling
allowed 19th century visitors to get their
bearings in the galleries

Sign of the Arcueil Aqueduct, built between 1613 and 1623 in order
to bring water to Paris from the springs in Rungis

"Stop, this is death's empire!"

The first bones were thrown very haphazardly into an abandoned quarry shaft, and it was only around the year 1810 that Hericart de Thury (1776-1854), Inspector General of the Quarries, developed the area.  The long bones and skulls were arranged decoratively to form a back wall, called hagues, behind which the other bones were piled, making reference to the walls built in the quarries using the stones remaining from quarry operations.
 

There were masses and masses of galleries with bones that
we couldn't even go in to

Hericart de Thury included signage indicating from which Parisian
cemetery the bones originated

The Fountain of the Samaritaine was a well
which provided access to a small groundwater
table which the quarry workers used to make the
mortar they used in the construction of the hagues

Needless to say after that three and a half hour wait we decided not to head to Disney tomorrow.  Instead I think we'll enjoy the extra hour in bed and then head to the Cite des Sciences et de L'Industrie (our kids love Science Museums), via some more bones - this time dinosaur ones.