Les Catacombes de Paris: An Homage to the Dead

As the days grow shorter and crisper, and the time to honour our dead fast approaches, I am reminded of my tour of les Catacombes de Paris last fall. This highly unusual Parisian site had been on my list of spots to visit for a while. However, I must admit that I viewed it with a high degree of hesitation. I wasn’t sure that I was up to descending into the bowels of the city that I love so much and walking among the bones of its long dead.

You see, I’ve never been one for horror movies. My tolerance for frights is pretty low. Even when watching a streamed movie, I will often fast-forward over bits when I hear suspenseful music start to play. So, when I thought of visiting les Catacombes, I was concerned that it might leave me with unwanted memories. Despite this, I finally decided that it was time to pluck up my courage and explore this intriguing part of French history.

Empire of the Dead

And so, on a drizzly September afternoon, I descended the 130 steps of a narrow circular stairway, passing by street, subway and sewer systems to arrive 20 metres underground. And I am so glad that I did. For what I discovered, was not a horror but instead a place of repose and respect. Although, I have to admit that I was a bit startled by the warning carved into the stone above the entrance to the ossuary: “STOP – THIS IS THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD”. A nearby sign indicating access to street level was a more welcome sight. In fact, the tunnels are well marked, mirroring the names of the streets high above.

Paris Stone

Let me back up a bit. You see, beneath the beautiful streets of Paris, lie more than 300 kilometres of tunnels. They were created by the quarrying of stone for use in construction of the city over the centuries. It is this limestone, better known as ‘Paris stone’, that gives most Parisian buildings their uniform, soft, taupe-grey colouring.

The tunnel walls bear the markings of the architects and engineers who have worked on them over the years. Seeing a more recent one was another comfort to me. And while they lay mostly empty for years, a unique use was found for them in the latter half of the 18th-century.

Les Innocents

At this time, the city was expanding rapidly. So much so, that it was having difficulty keeping up with providing appropriate space to bury its dead. In fact, in some cemeteries, bodies were being buried in mass graves. This over-utilization of the earth did not give it sufficient time to decompose and absorb this organic material. The result: a number of highly unsanitary sites. And the fact that the oldest and largest of these cemeteries, Les Innocents, was situated next to Les Halles, the market in the heart of the city, made the situation even graver.

It took edicts from two kings, as well as a massive flood in 1780, to finally bring an end to the interment of bodies in the cemeteries. For the Catholic Church was resistant to close them as burials were a great source of revenue for them. However, the decision was finally made to exhume the bodies and move the bones to les Catacombes, near Montparnasse, as their final resting place. The result is an underground ossuary covering more that 11,000 square metres in a fascinating labyrinth of tombs.

Marked by History

The bones of more than two million people were moved en masse in 1788 from Les Innocents alone. And over the following two years, the remaining cemeteries were emptied as well. Today, more that six million souls rest in this subterranean tomb. And their ossuary markers map out some of the key events in French history, including the Revolution.

A couple of other markers stood out to me. The first was an individual gravestone for a woman named Françoise Gillain. According to her stone, she was an admirable and incomparable woman who, in 1784, was honoured with the ‘Crown of Virtue’ by l’Acadamie Française, the pre-eminent French council for matters regarding the French language. I found the second stone fascinating because of the pile of bones strewn about its base. This was in stark contrast to the well-ordered piles surrounding it.

Les Hagues

Initially, the bones were just dumped into les Catacombes via an old quarry shaft. Around 1810 though, the Inspector General of Quarries, Héricart de Thury, began to set some order in place as a way of showing respect for the dead. This included arranging the skulls and tibias into façades of decorative designs following the medieval ossuary tradition. These walls became known as ‘hagues‘. The result is a captivating sight that gave me pause for thought about my own mortality.

The most unique of these hagues is called the ‘Barrel’. Located in the ‘Crypt of Passion’ or ‘Rotunda of the Tibias’, a support pillar is surrounded by a circular façade of skulls and tibias resembling a barrel.These hagues were more than just decorative though. For the cavities that were created behind them were then filled with the remaining bones. Thus creating self-contained crypts.

Meditations on Life

Thury also had a  collection of phrases posted throughout the ossuary. Quotes like: “Believe that each day is your last”, “If you have ever seen one die, always consider that the same fate awaits you” and “God is not the author of death”. These reflections on the fragility of human life certainly achieve their objective of prompting one to meditate on its value. And for me, they brought to mind a phrase from the Catholic funeral service: “Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return”. Thury was also responsible for the installation of the cemetery markers, as well as the adornment of pillars with Antiquity-inspired white and black graphics.

Altars were also built upon which the bones could be consecrated by a priest. Although, as the volume of bones grew, this practice fell by the wayside.