View source for Catacombs of Paris

{{short description|Underground ossuary in Paris, France}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox museum
| name                = Catacombs of Paris
| native_name         = {{lang|fr|Catacombes de Paris}}
| native_name_lang    =
| image               = File:Catacumbas, París, Francia, 2022-11-01, DD 105-107 HDR.jpg
| imagesize           = 300
| caption             = Crypt of the Sepulchral Lamp in the Catacombs of Paris
| alt                 =
| map_type            = Paris
| map_relief          =
| map_size            = 300
| map_caption         =
| coordinates         = {{coord|48|50|02|N|2|19|56|E|region:FR-75_type:landmark_source:dewiki|display=it}}
| established         = 1810
| dissolved           = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}} -->
| location            = Place Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France
| type                = [[Historic site]]
| accreditation       =
| key_holdings        =
| collections         = [[Mines of Paris|Paris's former stone quarries]], ossuary contents of Paris's pre-18th-century ''intra muros'' cemeteries
| collection_size     =
| visitors            = 480,000 (2018)<ref name="visiteurs_2018">{{Cite web|url=http://www.club-innovation-culture.fr/frequentation-musees-patrimoine-france-2018/|title=La fréquentation des musées et lieux de patrimoine en France, en 2018 (18/02/2019)|last=admin|first=Ecrit par|date=2019-02-18|website=Club Innovation & Culture CLIC France|language=fr-FR|access-date=2019-06-12|archive-date=2020-11-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125215234/http://www.club-innovation-culture.fr/frequentation-musees-patrimoine-france-2018/|url-status=live}}</ref>
| director            =
| president           =
| curator             =
| owner               =
| publictransit       = [[Denfert-Rochereau (Paris Métro)|Denfert-Rochereau]]<br />{{rint|paris|m|size=15}}{{rint|paris|m|4|size=15}} {{rint|paris|m|6|size=15}}<br />{{rint|paris|r|size=15}} {{rint|paris|r|B|size=15}}
| car_park            =
| network             =
| website             = {{URL|www.catacombes.paris.fr/en}}
}}
The '''Catacombs of Paris''' ({{langx|fr|Catacombes de Paris}}, {{pronunciation|Catacombe de Paris.ogg}})  are underground [[ossuary|ossuaries]] in [[Paris]], [[France]], which hold the remains of more than six million people.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en/catacombs/more-2000-years-history | title=Catacombs A Timeless Journey | publisher=Les Catacombes de Paris [Catacombs of Paris] | access-date=2015-01-05 | archive-date=2015-02-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208060235/http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en/catacombs/more-2000-years-history | url-status=live }}</ref> Built to consolidate Paris's ancient [[Mines of Paris|stone quarries]], they extend south from the {{lang|fr|italic=no|[[Barrière d'Enfer]]}} ("Gate of Hell") former city gate. The ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the effects of the city's overflowing cemeteries. Preparation work began shortly after a 1774 series of basement wall collapses around the [[Holy Innocents' Cemetery]] added a sense of urgency to the cemetery-eliminating measure, and from 1788, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris's cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the {{ill|Rue de la Tombe-Issoire|fr|Rue de la Tombe-Issoire}}.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willsher |first1=Kim |title='Bodies were dropped down quarry shafts': secrets of millions buried in Paris catacombs come to light |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/19/bodies-quarry-shafts-millions-buried-paris-catacombs |website=The Guardian |access-date=27 October 2024 |date=19 October 2024}}</ref>

The ossuary remained largely forgotten until it became a novelty-place for concerts and other private events in the early 19th century; after further renovations and the construction of accesses around {{lang|fr|italic=no|[[Place Denfert-Rochereau]]}}, it was opened to public visitation from 1874. Since 2013, the Catacombs have numbered among the fourteen City of Paris Museums managed by {{lang|fr|italic=no|[[Paris Musées]]}}. Although the ossuary comprises only a small section of the underground mines of Paris, Parisians often refer to the entire tunnel network as the catacombs.

==History==

===Paris's cemeteries===
[[File:Saints Innocents 1550 Hoffbauer.jpg|thumb|320px|[[Holy Innocents' Cemetery|Les Innocents cemetery]] in 1550]]
[[Paris]]'s earliest burial grounds were to the southern outskirts of the Roman-era Left Bank city. In ruins after the [[Western Roman Empire]]'s 5th-century end and the ensuing [[Franks|Frankish]] invasions, this settlement was eventually abandoned for the marshy Right Bank: from the 4th century, the first known settlement there was on higher ground around a Saint-Etienne church and burial ground (behind the present {{Lang|fr|[[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]]|italic=no}}), and urban expansion on the Right Bank began in earnest after other ecclesiastical landowners filled in the marshlands from the late 10th century. Thus, instead of burying its dead away from inhabited areas as usual, the Paris Right Bank settlement began with cemeteries near its centre.<ref>{{cite web |title=Les Catacombes de Paris |url=https://www.travelsspots.com/hidden-secrets-of-les-catacombes-de-paris/ |website=Unveiling the Hidden Secrets of Les Catacombes de Paris}}</ref>

The most central of these cemeteries, a burial ground around the 5th-century Notre-Dame-des-Bois church, became the property of the Saint-Opportune parish after the original church was demolished by the 9th-century [[Normans|Norman]] invasions. When it became its own parish associated with the church of the "[[Holy Innocents' Cemetery|Saints Innocents]]" from 1130, this burial ground, filling the land between the present [[Rue Saint-Denis (Paris)|rue Saint-Denis]], [[rue de la Ferronnerie]], rue de la Lingerie and the rue Berger, had become the city's principal cemetery.
By the end of the same century, Saints Innocents was neighbour to the principal Parisian marketplace [[Les Halles]], and already filled to overflowing. To make room for more burials, the long-dead were exhumed and their bones packed into the roofs and walls of "charnier" galleries built inside the cemetery walls. By the end of the 18th century, the central burial ground was a {{convert|2|m|ft|adj=mid|-high|abbr=off|spell=in}} mound of earth filled with centuries of Parisian dead, plus the remains from the [[Hôtel-Dieu de Paris|Hôtel-Dieu]] hospital and the Morgue; other Parisian parishes had their own burial grounds, but the conditions in Saints Innocents were the worst.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.citymetric.com/skylines/catacombs-paris-underneath-city-light-lies-chamber-darkness-and-death-1541|title=The Catacombs of Paris: Underneath the city of light lies a chamber of darkness and death - CityMetric|website=www.citymetric.com|access-date=2018-08-24|archive-date=2018-08-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824101807/https://www.citymetric.com/skylines/catacombs-paris-underneath-city-light-lies-chamber-darkness-and-death-1541|url-status=live}}</ref>

A series of ineffective decrees limiting the use of the cemetery did little to remedy the situation, and it was not until the late 18th century that it was decided to create three new large-scale suburban burial grounds on the outskirts of the city, and to condemn all existing parish cemeteries within city limits.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/paris-catacombs-180950160/|title=Beneath Paris' City Streets, There's an Empire of Death Waiting for Tourists|first=Natasha|last=Geiling|access-date=2018-08-24|archive-date=2018-08-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824034430/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/paris-catacombs-180950160/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===The future ossuary: Paris's former mines===
{{further|Mines of Paris}}
[[File:Plan paris gerards1908 jms.jpg|thumb|Map of former underground mine exploitations in Paris (1908)]]
Much of the Left Bank area rests upon rich [[Lutetian limestone]] deposits. This stone built much of the city, but it was extracted in suburban locations away from any habitation. Because of the post [[12th-century]] haphazard mining technique of digging wells down to the deposit and extracting it horizontally until depletion, many of these (often illicit) mines were uncharted, and when depleted, often abandoned and forgotten. Paris had annexed its suburbs many times over the centuries, and by the 18th century many of its arrondissements (administrative districts) were or included previously mined territories.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dailycampus.com/stories/2016/9/7/weird-wednesday-the-mines-of-paris|title=Weird Wednesday: The mines of Paris|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729230442/https://dailycampus.com/stories/2016/9/7/weird-wednesday-the-mines-of-paris|archive-date=2020-07-29}}</ref>

The undermined state of the Left Bank was known to architects as early 17th-century construction of the [[Val-de-Grâce]] hospital (most of its building expenses were due to its foundations), but a series of mine cave-ins beginning 1774 with the collapse of a house along the "rue d'Enfer" (near today's crossing of the Avenue Denfert-Rochereau and the [[boulevard Saint-Michel]]) caused King [[Louis XVI]] to name a commission to investigate the state of the Parisian underground. This resulted in the creation of the ''inspection Générale des Carrières'' (Inspection of Mines) service.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

===Ossuary creation===
The need to eliminate Les Innocents gained urgency from May 31, 1780, when a basement wall in a property adjoining the cemetery collapsed under the weight of the mass grave behind it. The cemetery was closed to the public and all ''intra muros'' (Latin: "within the [city] walls"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intra%20muros |title=intra muros |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=2015-01-06 |archive-date=2014-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206122500/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intra%20muros |url-status=live }}</ref>) burials were forbidden after 1780. The problem of what to do with the remains crowding ''intra muros'' cemeteries was still unresolved.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Mine consolidations were still occurring and the underground around the site of the 1777 collapse<ref>{{in lang|fr}} « Par commission du 27 April 1777, M. Guillaumot, architecte du Roi, fut nommé au poste de contrôleur et inspecteur général en chef des Carrières. Signe du destin, une nouvelle maison s'effondra le jour même dans les carrières de la rue d'Enfer ! » [http://geos1777.free.fr/cata_igc.htm Histoire de l'IGC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005023246/http://geos1777.free.fr/cata_igc.htm |date=2018-10-05 }}.</ref> that had initiated the project had already become a series of stone and masonry inspection passageways that reinforced the streets above. The mine renovation and cemetery closures were both issues within the jurisdiction of the [[Paris Police Prefecture|Police Prefect]] Police Lieutenant-General Alexandre Lenoir, who had been directly involved in the creation of a mine inspection service. Lenoir endorsed the idea of moving Parisian dead to the subterranean passageways that were renovated during 1782.{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}} After deciding to further renovate the "Tombe-Issoire" passageways for their future role as an underground [[sepulchre]], the idea became law in late 1785.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

A well within a walled property above one of the principal subterranean passageways was dug to receive Les Innocents' unearthed remains, and the property itself was transformed into a sort of museum for all the headstones, sculptures and other artifacts recovered from the former cemetery. Beginning from an opening ceremony on 7 April the same year, the route between Les Innocents and the "Clos de la Tombe-Issoire" became a nightly procession of black cloth-covered wagons carrying the millions of Parisian dead. It would take two years to empty the majority of Paris's cemeteries.<ref>{{cite web | title=Paris Catacombs Visitor Information | url=http://www.parislogue.com/catacombs | access-date=2011-02-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806082732/http://www.parislogue.com/catacombs | archive-date=2012-08-06 | url-status=usurped }}</ref>

Cemeteries whose remains were moved to the Catacombs include [[Holy Innocents' Cemetery|Saints-Innocents]] (the largest by far with about 2 million buried over 600 years of operation), [[Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, Paris|Saint-Étienne-des-Grès]]<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://darkhistoricalsites.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/catacombs-of-paris_1.jpg |title=Dark Historical Sites: Image |access-date=4 October 2023 |archive-date=2015-12-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208225659/https://darkhistoricalsites.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/catacombs-of-paris_1.jpg |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2022|reason=Self-published service, consists of one image}} (one of the oldest), [[Madeleine Cemetery]], [[Errancis Cemetery]] (used for the victims of the [[French Revolution]]), and [[Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://en.parisinfo.com/what-to-see-in-paris/info/guides/plunge-into-the-heart-of-the-catacombes-de-paris|title=Plunge into the heart of the Catacombes de Paris - Paris tourist office|access-date=2015-12-07|archive-date=2015-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150827222743/http://en.parisinfo.com/what-to-see-in-paris/info/guides/plunge-into-the-heart-of-the-catacombes-de-paris|url-status=live}}</ref> By this way the skeletal remains of several notable victims of the French Revolution were transferred to the Catacombs, including (the date is the date of death):<ref>Beyern, B., ''Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres'', Le Cherche Midi, 2008, 377 p. {{ISBN|978-2749113500}}</ref> 
*[[Charlotte Corday]] (18 July 1793)
*22 [[Girondist]]s (31 October 1793); among them [[Jacques Pierre Brissot]] and [[Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud]]
*[[Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]] (6 November 1793), father of king [[Louis Philippe I]]
*[[Madame Roland]] (8 November 1793)
*[[Madame du Barry]] (8 December 1793)
*[[Jacques Hébert]] (24 March 1794) 
*[[Georges Danton|Georges Jacques Danton]] (April 5, 1794)
*[[Camille Desmoulins]] (April 5, 1794)
*[[Fabre d'Églantine|Philippe Fabre d'Églantine]] (April 5, 1794)
*[[Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles]] (April 5, 1794)
*[[Lucile Duplessis]] (April 13, 1794), widow of Camille Desmoulins
*[[Marie Marguerite Françoise Hébert]] (April 13, 1794), widow of Jacques Hébert
*[[Antoine Lavoisier|Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier]] (May 8, 1794)
*[[Élisabeth of France|Madame Élisabeth]] (May 10, 1794), sister of kings [[Louis XVI]], [[Louis XVIII]] and [[Charles X of France|Charles X]]
*[[François Hanriot]] (July 28, 1794)
*[[Maximilien Robespierre]] (July 28, 1794)
*[[Louis Antoine de Saint-Just]] (July 28, 1794)
*[[Georges Couthon]] (July 28, 1794)
*[[Antoine Simon]] (July 28, 1794)

===Renovation and ossuary decor===
[[File:Catacumbas, París, Francia, 2022-11-01, DD 114-116 HDR.jpg|thumb|320px|right|Wall made of bones]]
Catacombs in their first years were a disorganized bone repository, but [[Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury]], director of the Paris Mine Inspection Service (Inspection générale des carrières) from 1810, had renovations done that would transform the caverns into a visitable [[mausoleum]]. In addition to directing the stacking of skulls, femurs and tibias into the patterns seen in the catacombs today he used the cemetery decorations he could find (formerly stored on the Tombe-Issoire property; many had disappeared after the [[French Revolution|1789 Revolution]]) to complement the walls of bones. Also created was a room dedicated to the display of the various minerals found under Paris, and another showing various skeletal deformities found during the catacombs' creation and renovation. He also added monumental tablets and archways bearing ominous warning inscriptions, and added stone tablets bearing descriptions or other comments about the nature of the ossuary, and to ensure the safety of eventual visitors, it was walled from the rest of Paris's [[Rive Gauche|Left Bank]]'s already-extensive [[Mines of Paris|tunnel network]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/sites/catacombes/files/editeur/pm_catacombes_depliant_gb.pdf |title=The Catacombs |access-date=2018-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922001315/http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/sites/catacombes/files/editeur/pm_catacombes_depliant_gb.pdf |archive-date=2018-09-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Modern ===
During [[World War II]], Parisian members of the [[French Resistance]] used the tunnel system and established the headquarters from where Colonel [[Rol-Tanguy]] led the insurrection for the [[liberation of Paris]] in June 1944. The [[Wehrmacht]] established an underground bunker below [[Lycée Montaigne (Paris)|Lycée Montaigne]], a high school in the [[6th arrondissement of Paris|6th arrondissement]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Meltzer |first=Hannah |date=2016-12-10 |title=Hidden villages, spooky tunnels and clever monkeys: 10 things you didn't know about Paris |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/paris/articles/paris-amazing-facts-things-you-did-not-know/ |access-date=2023-03-28 |issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-29 |title=Catacombs of Paris – Fascinating and Scary at the Same Time |url=https://www.documentarytube.com/articles/catacombs-of-paris-fascinating-and-scary-at-the-same-time |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=DocumentaryTube |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2004, police discovered a fully equipped movie theater in an area of the catacombs underneath the [[Trocadéro, Paris|Trocadéro]]. It was equipped with a giant cinema screen, seats for the audience, projection equipment, film reels of recent thrillers and [[film noir]] classics, a fully stocked bar, and a complete restaurant with tables and chairs. The group ''[[les UX]]'' took responsibility for the installation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://urban-resources.net/la_mexicaine_de_perforation.html|title=La Mexicaine De Perforation|date=2004|website=Urban-Resources|access-date=August 23, 2004|archive-date=June 10, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050610082325/http://www.urban-resources.net/la_mexicaine_de_perforation.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The film ''[[As Above, So Below (film)|As Above, So Below]]'', released in 2014, was the first production that secured permission from the French government to film in the catacombs. They aimed to use no alterations to the environment with the exception of a piano and a car which were hauled into the catacombs and set on fire.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 13, 2014 |title=Filming in the Paris Catacombs for ''As Above, So Below'' |url=https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-in-the-paris-catacombs-for-as-above-so-below/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203094710/https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-in-the-paris-catacombs-for-as-above-so-below/ |archive-date=December 3, 2022 |access-date=February 20, 2023 |website=[[Motion Picture Association]]}}</ref>

In 2015, Airbnb paid €350,000 as part of a publicity stunt offering customers the chance to stay overnight in the Catacombs.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34541003|title=Paris catacombs: Airbnb stay in 'world's largest grave'|work=BBC News|date=October 15, 2015|access-date=January 22, 2021|archive-date=January 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119213756/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34541003|url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2017, thieves broke into a cellar from the catacombs and stole more than €250,000 of wine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/30/thieves-dig-into-wine-cellar-paris-catacombs-france|title=Thieves bore into cellar from Paris catacombs to steal €250,000 of wine|date=August 30, 2017|website=the Guardian|access-date=January 22, 2021|archive-date=February 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203182735/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/30/thieves-dig-into-wine-cellar-paris-catacombs-france|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2025, American [[Palm Desert Scene|Desert Rock]] band [[Queens of the Stone Age]] released an acoustic live performance entitled ''[[Alive in the Catacombs]]'', recorded in 2024 while on the European leg of [[The End Is Nero World Tour|''The End Is Nero'' World Tour]].<ref><nowiki>{{Cite web | url=</nowiki>https://matadorrecords.com/blogs/news/queens-of-the-stone-age-alive-in-the-catacombs?srsltid=AfmBOopx-Ol79_6IDE8WzU5HmoXV0to_BBAo-xj7JDdbuK4-fpKhs4zw}<nowiki/>}
</ref> On the [[WTF with Marc Maron]] podcast, frontman [[Joshua Homme]] described how it took 18 years to secure permission to record in the catacombs.<ref><nowiki>{{cite web | url=</nowiki>https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1649-josh-homme
<nowiki>}} </nowiki>
</ref>

===Deaths===
Only one death has officially been confirmed in the Catacombs. In 1793, [[Philibert Aspairt]], a door keeper for the [[Val-de-Grâce]] hospital, died in the catacombs. It is thought that he lost his light source and was left to die in the darkness. In 1804, 11 years later, his body was found, only a few meters from a staircase that led to an exit. He was only identified by his hospital key ring and the buttons on his jacket.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grave of Philibert Aspairt |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-of-philibert-aspairt |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref>

==Visits==
[[File:Paris Catacombs Entrance.jpg|thumb|Entrance to the Catacombs]]
As one visits the catacombs, a sign above reads {{lang|fr|Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort}} ("Stop! The empire of Death lies here").<ref>References to the entryway sign:
* {{cite AV media|title=Revolutionary Paris: filthy cities|publisher=Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm)|author= [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]]|year=2011|time=39:47|oclc=835887472|via=Films On Demand}}
* {{cite AV media|title=Rick Steves' Europe: Highlights of Paris—Eiffel and Monet to crème brulée.|date=2004|last=Steves|first=Rick|publisher=Back Door Productions|time=17:57|isbn=1598800671|oclc=122353902|via=Films On Demand}}</ref> The Catacombs of Paris became a curiosity for more privileged Parisians from their creation, an early visitor being the [[Count of Artois]] (later [[Charles X of France]]) in 1787. Public visits began after its renovation into a proper ossuary and the 1814–1815 war. First allowed only a few times a year with the permission of an authorized mines inspector, but later more frequently and permitted by any mine overseer, a flow of visitors degraded the ossuary to a point where the permission-only rule was restored from 1830, and the catacombs were closed completely from 1833 because of church opposition to exposing human remains to public display. Open again for four visits a year from 1850, public demand caused the government to allow monthly visits from 1867, bi-weekly visits on the first and third Saturday of each month from 1874 (with an extra opening for the November 1 ''toussaint'' holiday), and weekly visits during the 1878, 1889 (the most visitors yet that year) and 1900 World's Fair Expositions. Later they opened for regular daily visits. After an incident of vandalism, the Catacombs were closed to the public during September 2009 and reopened on 19 December of the same year.<ref>{{cite web | title=Paris catacombs Vandalized, closed for repair | website=www.gadling.com | url=http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/22/paris-catacombs-vandalized-indefinitely-closed/ | date=2009-09-22 | access-date=2011-02-09 | archive-date=2011-02-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215095955/http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/22/paris-catacombs-vandalized-indefinitely-closed/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Anchor|OtherEventsIntheCatacombs}}

==Disruption of surface structures==
[[File:Plan cata paris 1857 jms.jpg|thumb|320px|Plan of the visitable Catacombes, drawn by the IGC (Inspection Générale des Carrières) during 1858]]Because the catacombs are directly under the Paris streets, large foundations cannot be built above them and cave-ins have destroyed buildings. For this reason, there are few tall buildings in this area.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gizmodo.com/5794199/unlocking-the-mystery-of-paris-most-secret-underground-society-combined|title=Unlocking the Mystery of Paris' Most Secret Underground Society (combined)|first=Sean|last=Michaels|date=21 April 2011 |access-date=2018-08-24|archive-date=2018-08-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825073904/https://gizmodo.com/5794199/unlocking-the-mystery-of-paris-most-secret-underground-society-combined|url-status=live}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|France}}

* [[Odesa catacombs]]
* [[Catacombs of Rome]]
* [[Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa|Catacombs of Kom El Shofaqa]]
* [[Cataphile]]{{Clear}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Quigley, Christine (2001) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tTST7UFzncoC Skulls and skeletons: human bone collections and accumulations]''. McFarland, Jefferson, NC, US. pp.&nbsp;22–29
* Riordan, Rick (2008) ''[https://books.google.com/books/about/The_39_Clues_Book_1_The_Maze_of_Bones.html?id=kb9uoxBrl2QC The 39 Clues Book 1: The Maze of Bones]''. Scholastic Inc. pp.&nbsp;169–176

==External links==
{{commons category|Catacombes de Paris|Catacombs of Paris}}
* {{Official website|www.catacombes.paris.fr/en}}
* [http://www.parismusees.paris.fr/en Paris Musées]
* [https://geographic.org/streetview/special_places/view_catacombs_paris_inside.php Google street view navigation of the catacombs]

{{Visitor attractions in Paris}}
{{Cemeteries in France}}
{{Death and mortality in art}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catacombs Of Paris}}
[[Category:1810 establishments in France]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1810]]
[[Category:Catacombs|Paris]]
[[Category:Cemeteries in Paris]]
[[Category:History of Paris]]
[[Category:History museums in France]]
[[Category:Museums in Paris]]
[[Category:Ossuaries]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in the 14th arrondissement of Paris]]
[[Category:Paris Musées]]