Fact Of The Day – The Catacombs Of Paris
The French capital is a location filled with a number of incredible sightseeing objectives and even though the majority of tourists travel to Paris because it is known as the “City of Love,” some tourists on the other hand travel to the city to visit the eerie destinations Paris has to offer. One of these eerie destinations is the Catacombs of Paris, which is actually included in the top 10 tourist attractions in Paris.
The Catacombs of Paris is the only ossuary in the entire world that contains the real skeletons of more than 6 million people. Surprisingly, the incredible amount of human bones is not all the Catacombs of Paris has to offer its visitors, as it also possess some very impressive history as well.
So what is the reason for the Catacombs of Paris?
In the 10th century, a considerable area of the parish was filled with cemeteries. In order to save space, those who had previously been buried a long time ago were dug out and replaced with new bodies. To begin with, the remains were gathered and stored in the galleries inside of the cemetery walls. However, eight centuries later the main cemetery included a mound over two feet high, the mound was filled with thousands of years old skeletons.
By the end of the 18th century it was clear that the cemetery was not capable of keeping up with the constantly growing number of bodies. This led to the human remains belonging to several cemeteries around Paris being moved into the Catacombs. However, it was only in 1810 that the ossuary began to take the shape that it has today. The head of the Paris Mine Inspection Service at the time, Louis-Etienne Hericart de Thury, came up with the unique idea of turning the Catacombs into a mausoleum. Each skull and bone was placed on top of each other, resulting in the Catacombs walls being covered in human remains.
Besides skulls and bones, visitors of the Catacombs of Paris can also see engravings, unique pillars and tablets with various inscriptions regarding the ossuary.
Ever since 1787 when the count of Artois, the first notable visitor, entered the mysterious tunnels, the Catacombs of Paris have been a popular sightseeing objective.