The catacombs are subterranean passageways that were used as place of burial for a number of centuries. The burials of Jewish, pagan and early Christian Roman citizens in the catacombs began in the second century and ended in the fifth century.
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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.
It may have been one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the Western World but its own rapid growth was causing the city's cemeteries to literally overflow with the bodies of the dead.
Cemeteries began to be emptied in 1786, beginning with Les Innocents. 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.
Despite the ritual with which they were transferred, the bones had simply been dumped into the tunnels in large heaps. Slowly but surely the quarrymen lined the walls with tibias and femurs punctuated with skulls which form the basis of most of the decorations that tourists see today.
Researchers say that, due to the enormous dimensions, the catacombs will never be fully explored. Many areas are blocked or difficult to access. Moreover, the investigation requires special equipment and a well-trained team.
During the Napoleon Empire, it was decided that the bones would be arranged in a necropolis emulating the roman ones, which explains the surprising aesthetic, effectively creating a city of the dead underneath the city of the living.
The Ukrainian port city of Odesa sits atop a labyrinth of catacombs—technically, limestone quarries—which constitute perhaps the world's largest network of urban tunnels, extending ten stories deep and tracing some fifteen hundred miles beneath the streets.
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.
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.
In total, 17 cemeteries, 160 places of worship and 145 monasteries and convents were added to the catacombs, which now hold more than six million remains, making it the largest visited necropolis in the world!
We explored the catacombs with a guide from The Viking River Cruise Ship Sineus. During WWII Soviet partisans used the tunnels to hide from the Germans and to attack them. There were lots of relics on display as well as the remains of the partisan's living quarters.
It's been illegal to visit the catacombs since 1955, aside from a mile of tunnels that comprise the official Musée Carnavalet. A sign over the entrance reads “Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la mort!” (“Stop!