Ancient site · France · Restored
Catacombs of Paris
Catacombes de Paris
The Catacombs of Paris are an underground ossuary and portion of the former limestone quarries beneath the 14th arrondissement, into which the remains of millions of Parisians were transferred from city cemeteries from the late 18th century. A managed museum route runs through renovated quarry galleries lined and decoratively arranged with stacked bones, tablets and memorial inscriptions, visited from an entrance at Place Denfert-Rochereau.
First raised
1787
Its prime
1815
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1815
What Catacombs of Paris looked like in its prime.
Low, tunnelled chambers carved from pale Lutetian limestone with ribbed, tool-marked ceilings and shallow stone arches. Long stretches of gallery walls are veneered with orderly bands of human long bones—femurs and tibias laid in rows—with skulls inserted at intervals and built into cylindrical ossuary pillars. Floors are packed earth or stone with visible sweep marks. Lighting is warm and dim (candle or oil lamp in the period), throwing ochre tones across bones and the darker hollows of skull sockets; occasional stone tablets, crosses and carved archways interrupt the bone veneers.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1815.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Catacombs of Paris, including 6 interiors: ossuary portal with inscription, main ossuary gallery, cylindrical ossuary pillar and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.
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