Most people believe that the most romantic and poetic European city is Paris. The Catacombs are not its most famous and popular attraction, but just a small part of the huge multi-level dungeons that stretch more than 300 kilometers below it.
Appearance story
In ancient times, the Roman settlement - Lutetia was located on the site of the modern capital of France. To erect the terms, sports arenas and create sculptures that can still be seen today in the Latin Quarter and on the island of Cite, local limestone and gypsum were mined, and it was then that the first quarries appeared. Over time, Roman Lutetia turned into French Paris; more and more building materials were required for a constantly growing city. Quarries not only expanded, but also deepened. In the XII century, one of the priority areas of French economic development was the extraction of limestone and gypsum. By the 15th century, the quarries had already become two-tier, and near the exits they arranged special wells equipped with winches to raise huge stone blocks to the surface. By the 17th century, a network of underground tunnels and mines was located under all Parisian streets. Almost the entire city “hung” over man-made voids.
Problem and Solution
In the XVIII century there was a threat of the collapse and the underground many Parisian streets. And after the tragedy happened in 1774 - a part of d'Anfeere street with buildings, people and wagons fell into a 30-meter pit - by order of the King of France Louis XVI, a special organization was created - the General Inspection of Quarries, existing and working today. Its employees are responsible for the condition in which the catacombs are located near Paris, strengthen and repair underground tunnels. Despite all the measures taken, the danger of destruction remains, since groundwater undermines the fortifications and foundations of the caves.
Modern history
Practical Frenchmen used dungeons for growing mushrooms, storing wines and other products. During the Second World War, when German troops occupied Paris, underground catacombs began to be used by both fighters of the French Resistance and fascists. In the middle of the last century, free access to the underground tunnels is forbidden, but the cataphils - lovers of the underground Parisian life - still find an opportunity to get into the catacombs, where they spend parties, paint and create other art objects.
The underground level of Paris officially authorized and open to all is the metro and the huge four-story Forum Forum, located under the square, where the market described by Emil Zola used to be - the womb of Paris.
Paris subway
The metro of the French capital is one of the oldest in the world - it is already more than a hundred years old. Its paths are intertwined with the lines of electric trains, and the structure includes more than 14 lines and 400 stations of medium and small bedding, connected by winding passages, built on the site of ancient Parisian catacombs. The Paris metro is different from all the others with a pleasant fragrance. The lobby floors are covered with a special wax every month with the smell of woods and meadows.
How to get into them?
Most tourists enjoy using the Paris metro and visit the giant Forum underground store, but not everyone traveling in France seeks to get into the ancient catacombs of Paris. An excursion into the underworld of the French capital is an event, as they say, “for everybody.” Nevertheless, you can get into them through a special pavilion, the former customs building, located near the metro station Denfert-Rochereau (Danfer-Roshro).
About 2.5 kilometers of underground tunnels and caves are open for tourists to visit. It is forbidden by law to be in some places, and special police brigades patrolling in the catacombs monitor its compliance.
Ossuary
The French underground necropolis is located under such modern Parisian streets as Alle, Dare, d'Alembert and Rene Coti Avenue, and most of those who walk along them do not even suspect that under them. The catacombs of Paris have their dark feature. The history of Ossuary, or simply put, an underground cemetery, began in 1780, after the city parliament banned burial within the city. The remains of more than two million people, who had previously been buried in the largest Parisian cemetery of the Innocents, were removed, disinfected, processed and laid to a depth of more than 17 meters in the abandoned Tomb Isoire quarries.
So Paris was cleared of graves. The catacombs have become the resting place of more than six million people. In 1876, the Paris Ossuary was founded, consisting of circular galleries with a total length of almost 800 meters. Parisian catacombs acquired their modern look at the beginning of the 19th century: smooth corridors filled with skulls and bones. The earliest burials dating back to the Merovingian era are more than 1000 years old, and the latest ones were held during the French Revolution.
What is there?
Once in Paris, the catacombs and Ossuary are worth a visit in order to appreciate the beauty and romanticism of the French capital in the "contrast" of death and life. In order to get into the necropolis, you will have to go down the 130 metal steps of a narrow spiral staircase. Those who suffer from claustrophobia, chronic heart, nervous and pulmonary diseases, it is better not to go on such an excursion, so as not to harm their own health.
In addition to human remains laid in the wall, at a depth of almost 20 meters, you can see an altar, bas-reliefs, monuments and sculptures installed in the mine for supplying fresh air that adorned the burial places of past centuries. Almost every sector is marked with a stone tombstone, on which the date of the reburial of the remains is indicated, as well as from which church and cemetery they were transported.
In one of the galleries you can see the well, previously used for the extraction of limestone, from which Paris was built. The catacombs, or rather, the ceilings and walls of these underground galleries, are “decorated” with the bones and skulls of the dead closely fitting together. In this City of Darkness, as the French themselves call this necropolis, the remains of such well-known people as Blaise Pascal and Fouquet, Marat and Lavoisier, Robespierre and Charles Perrault, Rabelais and Danton rest.
