Can people still be buried in the Paris catacombs?

Do the French still use the catacombs to bury the dead? No, of course not. The catacombs of Paris, a term used to name the municipal ossuary, are originally part of the former underground quarries located in the 14th district of Paris, connected by inspection galleries.



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In 1789, Paris, France, the world, the course of history was rocked by the French Revolution. From around this date, people were buried directly in the catacombs. This came to an end in 1860 when people ceased to be buried in the catacombs.

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Today, the only legal place to visit this underground realm is the Paris Catacombs, a nearly mile-long stretch in the 14th arrondissement that takes its name from the famous ossuary housed there.

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In September 2004, French police discovered an underground movie theatre run by La Mexicaine De Perforation. The makeshift theatre contained a movie screen, a well stocked bar, and a kitchen. Telephones and electricity were brought in from an unknown location.

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The Catacombs of Paris is an underground ossuary in Paris that houses the remains of nearly six million people. Back in 1786, the entire underground population of Paris' cemeteries was relocated to quarry tunnels outside the city limits. Visitors can now explore the caverns and tunnels where the bodies were relocated.

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Is a Tour of the Paris Catacombs Worth It? Short answer: Yes, it most definitely is. The area is an engineering marvel and full of significance—you'll find yourself getting more intrigued by the minute! Not to mention, guided tours have access to areas that are off-limits to the public.

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However, the strong smell of the Paris catacombs is apparently what all the initial signs were warning sensitive visitors about. At best, it could be likened to the dusty, incense-infused scent of old stone churches, but with an underlying malaise that can only be attributed to the contents of multiple cemeteries.

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Some areas of the tunnels even became shrines for martyrs buried there. But after Christianity was legalized in 313 AD, funerals moved above ground, and by the 5th Century, the use of catacombs as grave sites dwindled, though they were still revered as sacred sites where pilgrims would come to worship.

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That year, a prolonged period of spring rain caused a wall around Les Innocents to collapse, spilling rotting corpses into a neighboring property. The city needed a better place to put its dead. So it went to the tunnels, moving bones from the cemeteries five stories underground into Paris' former quarries.

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It's currently estimated that the catacombs consist of 320 kilometers of tunnels, but specialists have only mapped a portion of the ossuaries. The city sometimes relies on the knowledge of local cataphiles, urban explorers who tour the mines illegally.

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Even though it's illegal to access parts of the catacombs other than the site open to visitors, there's a group of urban explorers called “Cataphiles” who navigate the tunnels secretly.

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How to dress ? You can leave your boots at home, but be sure to wear comfortable shoes! However, waiting in front of the entrance can be long, even in winter, so don't forget to dress warmly.

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Over the course of 15 months, millions of bodies were relocated to the empty mines, which had been causing infrastructure problems. What better way to put them to use than to store remains in them? Now, there are over seven million bodily remains in the catacombs.

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It took the city 12 years to move all the bones—from bodies numbering between 6 and 7 million—into the catacombs. Some of the oldest date back as far as the Merovingian era, more than 1,200 years ago. Beginning during the French Revolution, the dead were buried directly in the catacomb's ossuaries .

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The Cemetery of the Innocents was so overpopulated that in 1780 the wall of a hotel collapsed and bones flooded the basement. It was then that it was decided the cemetery would be closed and the bones transferred to the stone quarries underground.

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A good guide is indispensable, and many guides occasionally refer to a map. Because of these dangers, accessing the catacombs without official escort has been illegal since 2 November 1955.

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