Big Event: Day 1 - Catacombs of Paris

I got into Paris on a Friday even though Mom’s plane wasn’t going to be there until Saturday morning.  TGV tickets are confusing.  For 11 euro I could come Friday or wait and pay the 50 some odd euros to come up early Saturday.  I would rather play in Paris for a day.  So I decided to go to the one place I know Mom would never go to; the Catacombs of Paris!

The first shocking scary thing was… the line.  It was backed down behind another building!  So, to pass time, I took pictures of ‘Simba’ from every direction.

Then I entered the building and was greeted by a sign that said:

Length of Visit: about 45 minutes
Warning: The ossuary tour could make a strong impression on children and people of a nervous disposition.

Sweet!  Then there was a rather long spiral staircase leading down, down, down.  Then some narrow, short people friendly corridors.  I think it might have been a test to see if you were claustrophobic because they also posted this sign: 

Because of extensive exploitation of Paris bedrock for building stones, several serious accidents occurred during the 18th century on the Left Bank.

To remedy this problem, an organization for inspecting the underground Parisian quarries was created on April 4, 1777 and placed under the direction of Charles-Axel Guillaumor, who was given the title, “General Controller and Inspector-in-Chief Responsible for Visits and Reapirs of Paris Quarries”.  We are indebted to the work of the Quarry Inspection Office for reinforcing the vast networks of galleries situated beneath the streets of Paris.

I saw a few markings on the sides of the wall.  Some looked like dates and other were the street names we were underneath.

 We were walking 20 meters below ground level, beneath the metro and the water and sewer systems.  The galleries follow the street patterns above ground, while the ossuary lies beneath the houses.

Then there was this really odd looking black mark on the ceiling.  I learned that the black mark was  old tool marks made by a kevel hammer.  These marks were made when the ossuary was opened to the public to help the visitors get their bearings while in the galleries. 

A little further down the walkways opened up.  There were carvings cut directly into the side of the wall.  These were called the Port-Mahon sculptures created in the late 1700’s. 

They represent the Port Mahon Palace in the main city of Minorca in the Balearic Islands and were sculpted, by memory, by Decure.  Decure was one of the first workers in the Quarry Inspections and was imprisoned in the fort opposite the palace for a long time.  He was killed in a cave in while trying to build an access stairway to this location.

There was also this waterway hole - like thing.  A shabby little sign explained that this natural spring is where most of the plaster was mixed.





Suddenly I found myself going up into this passage way. 

It opened to another long passageway.  From here on out all the walls where made with human bones! 
There were lots of explanations to why the Catacombs have become so massive. 

One sign stated:

At the end of the 18th century, rampant disease in the les Halles neighborhood caused by the adjacent Cemetery of the Innocents led to the mass grave being entirely exhumed.  In 1785, it was decided that the bones were to be moved to the building stone quarry under the Montsouris plain in the south of Paris.  On April 7, 1786, after being properly converted and readied, the quarries were consecrated and became the principal ossuary of Paris. 

Until 1788, cartloads covered with black clothes, escorted by priests chanting the office for the dead, crossed Paris by night to deposit their remains.











Another sign created Louis-Etienne Francois Hericart de Thury (1776-1854), the Engineer-in Chief of Mines with the decor.  He had the bones thrown in chaotically, arranged in a decorative way and made the Catacombs accessible to the public in 1810-1811.  It’s a bit morbid to me to use the dead body parts of other human begins as a decoration.  I guess Louis didn’t see it that way.

 

In these picture you can see the way the bones are arranged.  The bottom bones are mainly arm and leg bones stacked two high then two across.  Head were then placed with the back of the head facing out.  Some heads were placed facing the visitors, but not many.  Some other decorations include using two arm/leg bones to create a cross with a head facing forward like the symbol on a pirate ship.  All the other bones where just tossed behind the wall.  So many people, so many bones, so disturbing yet so flipping cool!

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