Unspecified/General

Far below the streets of the fourteenth arrondissement lies one of the most macabre and unforgettable sights in Paris: the Catacombs, a network of former quarry tunnels lined with the carefully stacked bones of some six million people. The galleries were originally dug to extract the limestone that built much of the city above, and by the eighteenth century the old cemeteries of central Paris had become dangerously overcrowded and unhealthy. The authorities decided to empty them, and from 1786 the remains of generations of Parisians were transferred by night into the disused quarries, where workers arranged the skulls and long bones into the strange, orderly walls that visitors see today. Opened to the public in the early nineteenth century, the ossuary became a curiosity for the bold and the morbidly fascinated, and it remains so. A long descent down a spiral staircase leads into the cool, dim passages, past sections of plain quarry and then into the bone-lined chambers, where inscriptions and verses on death and mortality punctuate the route, before another stair returns visitors to the daylight some distance away. Only a small, secured portion of the vast underground labyrinth is open, and numbers are limited, so booking ahead is strongly advised and queues for unbooked entry can be long. The temperature stays cool year-round and the walk involves many steps, which is worth bearing in mind. People come for the eerie atmosphere, for the sobering confrontation with the scale of the city's dead, and for a glimpse of the hidden world beneath the pavements. Equal parts history, engineering and the macabre, the Catacombs offer an experience quite unlike anything else on offer in Paris, and one that lingers long in the memory. Tickets are timed and should be booked well ahead online, as same-day queues can be very long and numbers underground are strictly limited. Sturdy shoes and a layer of warm clothing are sensible given the steps and the cool, damp air, and the visit is not suitable for those with limited mobility or claustrophobia. For everyone else, it remains one of the most extraordinary experiences hidden beneath the streets of Paris.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, Paris, France

Website: https://www.catacombes.paris.fr

Opening Date: 01/01/1809