Evening star., 1922-09-17


vestigate these injuries to commerce,
replies that the catacombs are un-
explorable.
Nobody knows their extent, he says.
In built-up Paris, such a search
would be impossibly complicated.
Tho police would waste their time
penetrating to unknown labyrinths.
Elaborate plans made sixty years ago
by Delesse and Lefebure de Fourcy
in 1871. They have only partially
been made over by the service of an
cient quarries and not published.
No map of subterranean Paris ex-
lists. apart from the book of Dunkel.
incomplete and reduced. In Dunkeps
book sixty-three entrances to ex-
plored catacombs are marked apart
from the bone pit" inflicted on tour
lists. The stairways leading down to
them have regularly from eighty to
one hundred and thirty steps!
What do tourists see today? 1t is
an outrageous sight. 1t is more
lugubrious and melancholy even than
the catacombs of Rome! Here tour
lists see human bones-an in
calculable mass of human bones from
ancient Paris cemeteries, stored in
this section of the catacombs to get
them out of the way, In fact, they
have nothing to do with the historic
Paris catacombs!
4 HUNDRED and fifty years ago
"A numerous cave-ins of the Paris
surface terrified the population.
In the Rue d'Enfer a house went
down entire eighty feet below the
street into an abyss! Extensive con-
solidations being necessary, they
sought to utilize the vast under
ground storerooms thus discovered
and put in order. From the Gene
terry of the Innocents and sixteen
other ancient burying places in mid
Paris, they transported the bones to
these catacombs of the Rue d'Enfer
They are the only catacombs that
tourists see!
The thing is grandiose, but horrid
Down there sleep the dead Of Paris
Of all ages: vague multitudes and
great men: canonized saints and rob-
bers hanged at Montfaucon; Merovin.
gian kings keep silence beside VIC
times of the commune. Valois, Bour-
bons. Orleans and Huguenots mix
xr-ffh ~ Al
Cour des Miracles, the pell-mell VIC
Tins Of the massacre Of St Bartholo-
NEW and tranquil Paris family folks
who died in their beds!
But 1t is not the catacombs,
If you would have an idea of the
known" catacombs Of Paris, here is
q spectacular fact. The great isolated
group under that part. of Paris sur
rounding the Jardin des Plantes dates
certainly from Roman times. In Dun
kers Topography and Consolida-
tion." it is expressly stated to COM
municate with the far-off Latin quar-
ter group. And yet no map in pos
session Of the municipal engineers
shows such a connection. The maps
were burnt in 1871.
Who has set foot. down there, since
Roman times?
How exploit this vast subterranean
city. beneath.Paris. for tourists?
Tourists have an instructive crav-
ing to go poking underground. The
romance of the Paris catacombs is
notorious. In the uncertainty and
violence of the middle ages and the
turmoil Of the renaissance. the pos
session of sdbterranean routes as
sured mysterious impunity to rich
families. Joseph Merry, in his Salons
ct Souterrains," says that the re-
ligious wars caused Paris property
owners to excavate more into the
earth than they built above it.
There were always the catacombs
to dig to!
When they reached them, they had
partial access to the subterranean
city.
Here is something which I know
of my own knowledge. A widow.
friend of my mothers. has q house in
the Boulevard st. Michel. which dates
from the renaissance. 1t has small
ancient garden with venerable
carved-stone benches and a great
stone well. whose carved curb. breast
high, surmounted by valuable old
iron-work. has caused 1t to be pre-
served. though the well has been dry
for more than q century.