When was the first catacombs built?

A little history of the Catacombs The Catacombs of Rome are underground galleries used for centuries as cemeteries. The catacombs began to take place in the 2nd century and were not finished until the 5th century. Here the pagan citizens, Jews and the first Christians of Rome were buried.



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Known as the first ever in the world, the Catacombs of San Sebastiano are a hypogeum cemetery in Rome, rising along Via Appia Antica in the Ardeatino Quarter. They are one of the few Christian burial locations that have always been accessible.

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The Paris Catacombs have a fascinating history which dates back to ancient times, and is the final resting place of over 6 million Parisians.

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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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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.

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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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The city stopped moving bones into the ossuaries in 1860. Today, a little more than a mile of the catacombs is open for visitors to explore. The public entrance is located in Paris' 14th arrodissement, at 1, avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy. It takes about 45 minutes to walk through.

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– 1774: severe collapse of Rue Denfert-Rochereau; 300 meters were swallowed up. – September 15, 1776: Louis XVI signs a decree that definitively prohibits extracting material from under public roads.

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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.

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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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After Christianity was legalized and as it spread through the empire, catacombs became not only a place where Christians could meet; they also became the place were Christians would bury their dead.

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At first, the catacombs were merely burial places; places where Christians could meet to perform funeral rites and celebrate the anniversaries of the martyrs and the dead. During the persecutions for the third century, Christians used the catacombs as places of momentary refuge for the celebration of the Eucharist.

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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.

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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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Among the many anonymous people who rest in the catacombs, there are some celebrities from French history such as Nicolas Fouquet (Louis XIV's superintendent of finance), Colbert, Rabelais, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Racine, Blaise Pascal, Maral, Lully, Danton, Robespierre, Lavoisier but also the 1343 people guillotined ...

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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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