Most people think that the most romantic and poetic European city is Paris. The catacombs are not its most famous and popular attraction, but just a small part of the huge multi-level dungeons that stretch more than 300 kilometers below it.
History of Appearance
In ancient times, on the site of the modern capital of France, there was a Roman settlement - Lutetia. For the construction of thermal baths, sports arenas and the creation of sculptures, which can still be seen today in the Latin Quarter and on the island of Cité, local limestone and gypsum began to be mined, and it was then that the first quarries appeared. Over time, Roman Lutetia turned into French Paris, for a constantly growing city, more and more building materials were required. The quarries not only expanded, but also deepened. In the XII century, one of the priority areas of French economic development was the extraction of limestone and gypsum. By the 15th century, the quarries had already become two-level, and next to the exits they arranged special wells equipped with winches.for lifting huge stone blocks to the surface. By the 17th century, a network of underground tunnels and mines was located under all Parisian streets. Almost the entire city "hung" over man-made voids.
Problem and solution
In the 18th century, there was a threat of collapse and going underground of many Parisian streets. And after a tragedy happened in 1774 - a part of Rue d'Anfer with buildings, people and wagons fell into a 30-meter pit - by order of the King of France, Louis XVI, a special organization was created - the General Inspectorate of Quarries, which exists and works today. Its employees are responsible for the condition in which the catacombs near Paris are located, strengthen and repair underground tunnels. Despite all the measures taken, the danger of destruction remains, as underground waters wash away the fortifications and foundations of the caves.
Modern history
The practical French used the dungeons to grow mushrooms, store wines and other products. During World War II, when German troops occupied Paris, the underground catacombs were used by both the French Resistance fighters and the Nazis. In the middle of the last century, free access to underground tunnels was prohibited, but cataphiles - lovers of Parisian underground life - still find an opportunity to get into the catacombs, where they hold parties, paint pictures and create other art objects.
Officially allowed and open to all the underground level of Paris - the subway and a hugethe four-story department store "Forum", located under the square, where the market described by Emile Zola used to be - the "womb of Paris".
Paris Underground
The metro of the French capital is one of the oldest in the world - it is over a hundred years old. Its paths are intertwined with electric train lines, and it consists of more than 14 lines and 400 stations of medium and shallow occurrence, connected by winding passages, built on the site of the old Parisian catacombs. The Parisian subway differs from all others by its pleasant fragrance. The floors of the lobbies are waxed every month with a special wax smelling of forest and meadows.
How to hit them?
Most tourists are happy to use the Paris metro and visit the underground giant Forum store, but not every traveler in France wants to get into the ancient catacombs of Paris. An excursion to the underground world of the French capital is an event, as they say, “for an amateur”. However, you can get to them through a special pavilion, the former customs building, located near the Denfert-Rochereau metro station (Denfert-Rochereau).
About 2.5 kilometers of underground tunnels and caves are open for tourists to visit. It is forbidden to be in the territory of some places by law, and special police brigades patrolling in the catacombs monitor its observance.
Ossuary
The French underground necropolis is located under such modern Parisian streets as Allais, Dare, d'Alembert and Rene-Coty avenues, and most ofthose who walk on them are not even aware of what is under them. The catacombs of Paris have their own gloomy feature. The history of the Ossuary, or more simply, the underground cemetery, began in 1780, after the city parliament banned burials within the city. The remains of more than two million people, who were buried earlier in the largest Parisian cemetery of the Innocents, were taken out, disinfected, processed and laid to a depth of more than 17 meters in the abandoned quarries of Tomb-Issoire.
This is how Paris was cleared of graves. The catacombs have become the resting place of more than six million people. In 1876, the Parisian Ossuary was founded, consisting of circular galleries with a total length of almost 800 meters. The Parisian catacombs acquired their modern look at the beginning of the 19th century: smooth corridors filled with skulls and bones. The earliest Merovingian burials are over 1,000 years old, while the latest were from the French Revolution.
What is it?
Once in Paris, the catacombs and the Ossuary are worth a visit in order to appreciate the beauty and romanticism of the French capital on the "contrast" of death and life. In order to get to the necropolis, you have to go down the 130 metal steps of a narrow spiral staircase. Those who suffer from claustrophobia, chronic heart, nervous and pulmonary diseases should not go on such an excursion so as not to harm their own he alth.
Besides the human remains laid in the wall, at a depth of almost 20 meters, you cansee the altar installed in the mine to supply fresh air, bas-reliefs, monuments and sculptures that adorned the burial places of past centuries. Almost every sector is marked with a stone tombstone, which indicates the date of the reburial of the remains, as well as from which church and cemetery they were transported.
In one of the galleries you can see a well, previously used to extract limestone from which Paris was built. The catacombs, or rather, the ceilings and walls of these underground galleries, are “decorated” with the bones and skulls of the dead tightly fitted to each other. In this City of Darkness, as the French themselves call this necropolis, the remains of such famous people as Blaise Pascal and Fouquet, Marat and Lavoisier, Robespierre and Charles Perrault, Rabelais and Danton are buried.
Reviews of tourists
Today, travelers wishing to visit the catacombs (Paris, France) can only walk along the historical part and not enter the sectors where the burials are located. The tunnels carved underground do not make any special impression - dimly lit corridors and in some places there are signs indicating the names of the streets located above. But the Ossuary, the place where bones are stored, amazes most people not so much with the number of remains, but with various patterns and figuratively lined skulls, masonry in the form of a “house”, “barrel” or a temple.
Despite the warning sign at the entrance: “Stop! Here is the kingdom of death!”, No one experiences much horror, but experiencedtourists say that the Palermo catacombs of the Capuchins make a more depressing impression. Even such a huge number of individual skulls and bones is not as overwhelming as the surviving Italian mummies. Despite the strict ban on even touching them, tourists from different countries pick up and take selfies with the remains.
