Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. Organized in a renovated section of the city's vast network of subterranean tunnels and caverns towards the end of the 18^th century, it became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19^th century, and was open to the public on a regular basis from 1867. The actual name for the catacombs are l'Ossuaire Municipal.

This cemetery covers a portion of Paris' former mines near the Left Bank's Place Denfert-Rochereau, in a location that was just outside the city gates before Paris expanded in 1860. Although this cemetery covers only a small section of underground tunnels officially called "les carrières de Paris" ("the quarries of Paris"), Parisians today popularly refer to the entire network as "the catacombs".

History

Most of Paris' larger churches once had their own cemeteries, but city growth and generations of dead began to overwhelm them. From the late seventeenth century, Paris' largest Les Innocents cemetery (near the Les Halles district in the middle of the city) was saturated to a point where its neighbors were suffering from disease, due to contamination caused by improper burials, open mass graves, and earth charged with decomposing organic matter.

After almost a century of ineffective decrees condemning the cemetery, it was finally decided to create three new large-scale suburban cemeteries and to condemn all existing within the city limits; the remains of all condemned cemeteries would be moved discreetly to a renovated section of Paris' abandoned quarries. The use of the depleted quarries for the storage of bones, based on the idea of Police Lieutenant General Alexandre Lenoir, was established in 1786 by his successor, M. Thiroux de Crosne, under the direction of Charles Axel Guillaumot, Inspector General of Quarries.

Remains from the cemetery of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs were among the first to be moved. Bodies of the dead from the riots in the Place de Grève, the Hotel de Brienne, and Rue Meslee were put in the catacombs on August 28 and August 29, 1788.

The catacomb walls are covered in graffiti dating from the eighteenth century onwards. Victor Hugo used his knowledge about the tunnel system in Les Misérables. In 1871 communards killed a group of monarchists in one chamber. During World War II, Parisian members of the French Resistance used the tunnel system. Also during this period, German soldiers established an underground bunker in the catacombs below Lycée Montaigne, a high school in the 6th arrondissement. (This bunker is not on the tourist route and can only be seen during an "unauthorized visit".)

The underground tunnels and chambers have long posed safety problems for construction in Paris. Quarries sometimes cave in, occasionally resulting in a hole in the ground above and causing damage to buildings. To prevent this, the IGC, Inspection générale des Carrières (General Inspection of the Quarries) was established in 1777 by the government in order to monitor the current quarries and prohibit the digging of new quarries. The IGC did, however, dig observation tunnels in order to provide themselves with better access to the quarries so that they might better monitor, repair, and map the consolidated quarries.

The monitoring and consolidation work has continued to this day. Because of the number of quarries, subway tunnels, train tunnels and sewer tunnels that have been dug underneath Paris, as well as the softness of the stone involved, extra caution is taken when new construction is attempted or new tunnels are dug. However, this did not prevent problems during the digging of Paris Métro Line 14.

In popular culture

Books

In Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum, the Paris catacombs were the resting place of a parchment concerning the Knights Templar.
Many scenes in Bad Voltage, a 1980s cyberpunk novel by Jonathan Littell, take place in the catacombs.
In Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night, two characters investigating the murders of London vampires descend into the catacombs. There they find Brother Anthony, a 600-year-old priest turned vampire, living among the bones of the dead.
In Robison Wells' novel The Counterfeit, the catacombs are the location of a fictitious Illuminati meeting place. The main characters, Eric and Rebekah, are guided through the catacombs by three cataphiles.
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846), the main character Montressor walls up another man inside a cavity, deep within some catacombs, which are described as being "lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris."
Max Brooks, in his book World War Z, about a hypothetical zombie epidemic, refers to the catacombs as being used and extended by refugees.
In Tess Gerritsen's novel Body Double, one of the main characters is lost in the catacombs.
In Interview with the Vampire, vampires are residents of the catacombs.
The climax of Marc D. Giller's science-fiction novel Hammerjack takes place in a secret facility located deep in the catacombs.
In Piratica III-The Family Sea, main characters Art Blastside, Ebad Vooms, Wild Mike and Apollo Leoni escape through the catacombs while running from French Soldiers.
William T. Vollmann's Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom, and Urgent Means begins with a section titled "Three Medititations on Death." The first meditation, entitled "Catacomb Thoughts," is a reflection on the Catacombs of Paris.
In Kresley Cole's novel A Hunger Like No Other vampires used the catacombs as a place of torture.
In Michael Scott's novel The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Josh seeks out the war god Mars in the catacombs to awaken the boy's powers.

Films and television

The cult classic Les Gaspards, known in English as The Holes, was filmed in and revolves around the catacombs. It was made in 1974 and stars a young Gérard Depardieu.
The 2007 film Catacombs is set in the Paris catacombs, even though it did not receive permission to film there. Catacombs features the singer P!nk and the actress Shannyn Sossamon.
Though not truly filmed in the Parisian catacombs, a Hollywood set created to mimic the catacomb ambiance was used in the production of the music video Slither by the rock band Velvet Revolver.
In the anime television series Noir, the fifth episode takes place in the Parisian catacombs.
In the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the catacombs are used by Captain Pheobus and Quasimodo to find the Court of Miracles.
The Parisian catacombs was on ABC Family's Scariest Places On Earth.

Video games

In the computer game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, the player has to enter the Paris catacombs via a manhole in order to find a clue that leads to the next part of the game.
In Deus Ex, set in 2052, the player has to traverse part of the catacombs to reach another area of the city. The catacombs in the game's world are home to a clandestine group of French revolutionaries named Silhouette, who make their home in a German World War II bunker located in the catacombs. A news terminal found in a building that serves as the entrance gives a brief history of the catacombs.
In Medal of Honor: Underground, one of the missions involves traversing the catacombs in order to escape German authorities after a mission to steal weapons goes bad.
In the Nancy Drew game Danger by Design, Nancy enters the catacombs to retrieve important clues.
In Midnight Club II, the Catacombs play host to high speed automobile races, or can be used in a shortcut in above-ground races.
In Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, the elite special forces team Rainbow must explore the Catacombs of Paris to locate and eliminate a nest of terrorists within.
In the Tomb Raider III expansion, The Lost Artifact, Lara Croft explores a hidden area deep within the catacombs in the Paris levels to recover the Hand of Rathmore.
"Return of the Phantom" (Microprose 1993) used part of the catacombs under the Paris Opera House as the setting for the game's maze and lair of Erik, The Opera Ghost.

References

External links

Template:En icon Explographies.com : Catacombs of Paris - Cartography, maps & plans of the catacombs and underground quarries
Template:En icon Underground Paris — A Paris Catacombs virtual tour with photos
Template:En icon Urbanadventure — Information source on the catacombs with images, videos and maps
Template:En icon Catacombs of Paris — some useful information, description, links
Template:En icon "A tour of the dark world beneath the city of lights" by Murray Battle
Template:Fr icon Official website, opening hours, entrance fees
Template:En icon Catacombs of Paris Museum - The Catacombes de Paris official site, in English.