Underground Paris. Catacombs of Paris: description, history and testimonials of visitors

Most people believe that the most romantic and poetic European city is Paris. Catacombs - not the most famous and popular of its landmark, but only a small part of the huge multi-level dungeons, stretching more than 300 kilometers under it.

History of appearance

In ancient times, the place of the modern capital of France was a Roman settlement - Lutetia. For the construction of the thermae, sports arenas and the creation of sculptures, which can still be seen today in the Latin Quarter and on the island of Cité, local limestone and gypsum began to be mined, and it was then that the first quarries appeared. Over time, the Roman Lutetia turned into French Paris, for a growing city, ever more building materials were required. Quarries not only expanded, but also deepened. In the XII century, the extraction of limestone and gypsum became one of the priorities of the French economic development. By the XV century, the quarries had already become two-level ones, and near the exits they arranged 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 beneath all Parisian streets. Almost the whole city "hovered" over man-made emptiness.

Problem and solution

In the XVIII century, there was a threat of collapse and withdrawal of many streets in Paris. And after the tragedy happened in 1774 - a part of the D'Anfer Street collapsed into a 30-meter pit with buildings, people and wagons - a special organization, the General Inspectorate of Quarries, existing and working today was set up by the order of the King of France Louis XVI. Its employees are responsible for the condition in which the catacombs are located near Paris, reinforce and repair underground tunnels. Despite all the measures taken, the danger of destruction remains, since the underground waters wash away 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 were used as fighters of the French Resistance, and fascists. In the middle of the last century, free access to underground tunnels is forbidden, but cataphiles are lovers of underground Parisian life - and today they find an opportunity to get into the catacombs where they spend parties, write pictures and create other art objects.

Officially authorized and open to all underground level of Paris - underground and a huge four-story department store "Forum", located under the square, where previously was described by Emile Zola market - "the womb of Paris."

Paris Subway

The metro of the French capital is one of the oldest in the world - it is more than one 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 occurrence, connected by winding passages, built on the site of the ancient Parisian catacombs. The Paris subway differs from all others in a pleasant fragrance. The floors of the vestibules are covered every month with a special wax with the smell of forest and meadow.

How to get there?

The majority of tourists enjoy using the Parisian metro and visit the underground giant "Forum" store, but not every traveler in France wants to get to the ancient catacombs of Paris. An excursion to the underground world of the French capital is an event, as they say, "to an amateur". Nevertheless, you can get to them through a special pavilion, the former customs building, located near the metro station Denfert-Rochereau (Dunfer-Rochero). To visit tourists opened about 2.5 kilometers of underground tunnels and caves. On the territory of some places, it is forbidden by law to stay, and special police brigades patrolling in the catacombs monitor its observance.

Ossuary

There is a French underground necropolis under such modern Parisian streets as Allais, Dare, d'Alembert and Avenue René-Coti, and most of those who walk along them do not even suspect what is under them. Its gloomy feature is the catacombs of Paris. The history of the Ossuari, or, more simply, an underground cemetery, began in 1780, after the city parliament banned burial in the city. The remains of more than two million people, formerly buried at the largest Parisian cemetery of the Innocent, were taken out, disinfected, processed and laid to a depth of more than 17 meters in the abandoned quarries of Tomb-Isuar. So was cleared of the burial of Paris. Catacombs have become a place of rest for more than six million people. In 1876 the Parisian Ossuary was founded, consisting of circular galleries with a total length of almost 800 meters. The Parisian catacombs acquired their modern appearance in the early 19th century: flat corridors filled with skulls and bones. The earliest burials belonging to the Merovingian age 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 the Ossuary is worth a visit in order to appreciate the beauty and romanticism of the French capital on the "contrast" of death and life. In order to get into the necropolis, you have to go down 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 a similar excursion, so as not to harm their own health.

In addition to human remains placed in the wall, at an altitude of almost 20 meters you can see the altar, bas-reliefs, monuments and sculptures installed in the fresh air supply shaft, decorating the burials of past centuries. Almost every sector is marked with a stone tombstone, which indicates the date of reburial of the remains, as well as from which church and cemetery they were transported. In one of the galleries one can see a well previously used for limestone mining, from which Paris was built. Catacombs, or rather, the ceilings and walls of these underground galleries, are "decorated" with densely bones and skulls of the deceased densely connected to each other. 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 are buried.

Reviews of tourists

Today, travelers wishing to visit the catacombs (Paris, France) can only stroll through the historic part and do not go to the sectors where the burials are located. The tunnels cut down under the ground do not produce any special impression - the slightly illuminated corridors and here and there the tablets with the names of the streets on the top. But the ossuary, the place of storage of bones, affects most people not so much by the number of remains as by various patterns and figuratively laid skulls, masonry in the form of a "house", "barrel" or temple. Despite the warning sign at the entrance: "Stop! Here is the realm of death! ", No one is experiencing particular terror, and seasoned tourists say that the Palermo catacombs of the Capuchins produce a more oppressive impression. Even such a huge number of individual skulls and bones are not as stunning as the surviving Italian mummies. Despite the strictest ban even touching them, tourists from different countries take in hand and make selfies with remains.