The Catacombs of Paris is a famous burial place in Paris, France and although they are most widely known as "the catacombs", the official title is "les Carrieres de Paris", which translates to the quarries of Paris.
History OF THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS
The Catacombs of Paris (the “municipal Ossuary”) have been créâtes at the end of the 18th century. The cemetery of Innocent (close to Saint-Eustace, in the district of the "Halles") had been used during nearly ten centuries and had become the origin of infection for all the inhabitants of the district. After multiple complaints, the Council of State, by décisions of November 9, 1785, pronounced the removal and the evacuation of the cemetery of the Innocent ones.
Old Quarries were selected to deposit Parisian bones; Paris indeed had just created the General Iinspection of the Quarries charged of the consolidation of the public highways undermined by the Quarries. The Quarries “of Tombe-Issoire” were the object of work including masonry and consolidations of galleries, and by the digging of a flanked staircase.
The removal of the bones began after the blessing of the place on April 7, 1786 and was continued until 1788, always a night and according to a ceremonial made up of a procession of priests who sang the burial service along the way borrowed by the tipcarts charged with bones and covered with a black veil. Thereafter, this place was used, until 1814, to collect the bones of all the cemeteries of Paris.
The Catacombs of Paris reopened on June 14, 2005 after several months of closing for work. Lighting was revised, the arches were consolidated and the walls of re-installed bones.
The catacombs today
Entrance to the catacombs is restricted. The portion of the catacombs open to the public is only a small part of an extensive network of underground tunnels, which spans more than 300km.
The tunnel system is complex, and though some tunnels have plaques indicating the name of the street above, it is still quite easy to get lost with some passages being extremely low or narrow and others that are partially flooded.
There are also aging telephone wires, pipes, etc. that can hinder progress, and cave-ins, although rare, do occasionally occur. So a good guide is therefore necessary, even though many of the good guides will still refer to a map from time to time.
When you first arrive at the entrance to the catacombs you just may miss it since it is nothing more than a green color metal hut. You will transcend many flights of stairs to reach the visitor layer. These very steps may pose a problem for the elderly people should they be out of shape. The total number of steps is approximately 80 layers when descending into the tunnel and about 200 when coming back up. The exit steps are arranged in a small spiral. You will walk in a long expanse of dark musty tunnel prior to arriving at the bone collections. Most of the passageways are rather narrow and it will seem like they never end.
Mar 7, 2011
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