Let's go down to the crypts...
Beneath the streets of Paris there are hundreds of miles of tunnels and chambers carved into the bedrock. In the southern area of Paris, the Romans dug down to quarry limestone blocks to use as building material. Mining of the “Paris Stone” continued over the centuries and built the city in the distinctive colors of the natural stone.
Tourists first visited the Paris Bone Crypts in the 18th Century. Since then, the mausoleums have become a popular attraction. Last year, Airbnb, paid 350,000 euro to offer customers the chance to stay overnight in the crypts (source: en.wikipedia.org).
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| source: wikipedia/commons |
There’s
a fascinating history connected with the catacombs, and modern day cataphiles are people who love to visit the
Paris underground.
What
is it like down there beneath the busy city streets, in the grey bowels of the
earth? The thick limestone rock has the effect of “silence in the dark”. To
have a look and see, I thought I’d share this video of a group of men who
visited the underground for twelve hours.
Gates of Hell – Barrière d’Enfer
Why
did a group of men risk their safety to climb down an old hole in the floor of a
disused railway tunnel and venture into the catacombs? They were hoping to
solve a mystery.
Some
time ago, a man filmed himself exploring the catacombs. For some reason he
became panicked. Was he scared of something? He started running along the
passageways and his breathing grew heavy. He dropped his video recorder and he disappeared
into the darkness. No one knows what happened to him.
A
freelance cameraman enlisted help to retrace the steps of the mystery
man, and maybe find him. It's probably illegal and dangerous to do what this group of guys did. They faced the risk of getting disorientated and lost. Or
encountering low oxygen levels as they descended to the deeper levels.
In
the video, you see the guys walking astride the edges of water-logged tunnels,
maybe they were being wary of unknown holes in the floor that they could fall
into, drop down and drown. There’s also the risk of running out of batteries in
their lights, and not being able to find their way up to the surface.
When
the guy leading the search walked on the bones of a mass grave in the warren, I
turned queasy. The guy said he found the Gates of Hell in the catacombs. Do you
believe him…or not? Here's the video.
Stop! This is the
Empire of the Dead – Arrête! C’est ici l’empire de la Mort
(words from a
stone portal above the entry to the Bone Crypt)
How
did areas of the limestone mines become bone crypts?
A cold wind
blows through the graveyard…
In
days gone by, church cemeteries were the usual destination for the deceased.
Some of the graves dated back to Paris’s earliest history of over 1000 years.
There
were mass graves for the poor who couldn’t pay much money for their bodies to be
buried. Layer upon layers of people were laid to rest in the church pits. By
the late 1700’s, there were problems with the Parisian cemeteries, and then crisis
struck and a solution had to be found.
Health
Scare
The
groundwater near the graveyards was contaminated with disease (perhaps an
outbreak of cholera???). At least three church cemeteries were condemned by
authorities. In 1763, burials were banned in the French capital.
Overcrowding
In
1780, large spring rains caused a wall around the Les Innocents—the largest church
cemetery in Paris to collapse and then…the corpses…it’s too gruesome for me to
write about.
Collapsing
Tunnels
Underground
mining of the limestone had been uncontrolled for a long period of time. In
1774, sections of the limestone mines caved in.
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| source: wikipedia/commons |
The Solution
In
1786, a section of the underground quarries had been reinforced, was dedicated
and consecrated. The bones from the Les Innocents graveyards were transferred
to the catacombs. In the years that followed, other parish cemeteries relocated
their deceased.
“…bones were always
moved in a quiet parade of carts accompanied by priests, and these movements
always took place at night.” source: www.parislogue.com
Victims
of the French Revolution (1789-1799) were also placed in the catacombs.
By
1859, the final delivery of grave remains was complete. In the following year, the Bone Crypts were renovated
by Georges-Eugène Haussmann as part of a greater plan to
rebuild Paris. Haussmann was chosen by Emperor Napoleon III to renovate the
public spaces of Paris. Both men had ambitious, grand and extravagant plans which
were criticized at the time as old buildings were demolished to make Paris into a modern
beautiful city.
Meanwhile,
below the streets, the bones were stacked in heaps, and arranged into sculptures
and monuments. Some grave artifacts were salvaged from the church cemeteries and
installed in the crypts.
From
1874, a section of the Bone Crypts was opened to the general public.
A little Haunted.
Are
the Bone Crypts haunted? From the youtube videos I’ve watched, visitors have
reported being touched by invisible hands and grey shadows moving around the
room. A shriek and ghostly words have been found on EVP (electronic voice
phenomena) recording equipment.
The
Paris catacombs are the world’s largest graveyard, holding the remains of over
six million people or roughly three times the population of Paris. It seems
likely that some unsettled spirits wander the caverns. If you’d like to find
out for yourself, here’s the link to the catacombs official website. www.catacombes.paris
Excuse
me if I stay at home and hug the cat.
Well
that’s my brief tour of the Paris Bone Crypt history come to an end.
Peace with you.
Peace with you.
♥ Ashlyn
Some
information in this post was sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris
