Paris Catacombs

The Catacombs

## History

The Catacombs of Paris are underground crypts in Paris, France, which holds the remains of over 6 million people.

It extends south of the Barriere d'Enfer (Gate of Hell) former city gate. It was built as part of efforts to eliminate the city's overflowing cemetery problem. Work began shortly after basement walls in the Saint-Innocents cemetery collapsed in 1774. From 1786, nightly processions of wagons transferred remains from Paris cemeteries to a mine shaft located near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.

The crypts remained largely forgotten until it became a place of novelty, and used for concerts and other events in the early 19th century. After further renovations and the construction of accesses around Place Denfert-Rochereau, it was open to public visitations from 1874.

The catacombs in their earlier days were a disorganised bone repository, but Louis-Etienne Hericart de Thury, director of the Paris Mine Inspection Service from 1810, had renovations done that would transform the underground caverns into a visitable mausoleum. In addition to directing the stacking of skulls and femurs into the patterns seen in the catacombs today, he used the cemetery decorations he could find (formerly stored on the Tombe-Issoire property, many had disappeared after the ) to complement the walls of bones. Also created was a room dedicated to the display of the various minerals found under Paris, and another showing various skeletal deformities found during the catacombs' creation and renovation. He also added monumental tablets and archways bearing inscriptions (that some found questionable) that were warnings, descriptions or other comments about the nature of the ossuary, and, for the safety of eventual visitors, it was walled from the rest of the Paris's Left Bank already-extensive underground tunnel network.

The estimated length of the catacombs is somewhere along 200 miles, though much of the catacombs are still unexplored, and many sections have various floors. Getting lost in the crypts is extremely easy, as many people have discovered. Many areas of the catacombs have flooded, meaning traversing through large depths of water is necessary to get to some sections.

## Notable Events

* The tomb of the Val-de-Grace hospital doorkeeper, Philibert Aspairt, lost in the catacombs during 1793 and found 11 years later, is located in the catacombs on the spot where his body was found.
* During 1871, communards killed a group of monarchists there.
* The Nazis established an underground bunker below Lycee Montaigne, a high school.
* During 2004, police discovered a fully equipped movie theater in one of the caverns. It was equipped with a giant cinema screen, seats for the audience, projection equipment, film reels of recent thrillers and film noir classics, a fully stocked bar, and a complete restaurant with tables and chairs. The source of its electrical power and the identity of those responsible remain unknown.
* The film 'As Above, So Below', released in 2014, was the first production that secured permission from the French government to film in the catacombs. They aimed to use no alterations to the environment with the exception of a piano and a car which were hauled into the catacombs and set on fire.

## Notable Hauntings and Activity

* Paris Catacombs Found Footage
* Many reports of noises, breathing, whispering and footsteps.
* Many reports of humanoid figures sighted in the tunnels.