Video: Paris catacombs, or the Underworld in the most romantic city on Earth
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Paris is today one of the top tourist destinations in the world. It is difficult to find a person who does not know the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, where millions of tourists visit every year. Nevertheless, not all tourists who come to Paris know about the eerie Parisian underworld, literally hiding under their feet.
The Catacombs of Paris are a real city of the dead, in which the remains of almost 6 million people "live". And best of all, these giant ossuaries are open to the public. The need to create such vast burials arose in the 17th century, when a rapid population growth began in the French capital. Naturally, more people died at the same time, and they had to be buried somewhere.
City cemeteries were overcrowded, and there was simply nowhere to take corpses out of the morgues. This, to put it mildly, did not promote hygiene, and diseases began in Paris. There have been repeated unsuccessful attempts to find a solution to this growing problem. But it wasn't until the end of the 18th century that it dawned on some Parisians that the tunnels under the city (which used to be quarries) could be used as ossuaries.
The 300-kilometer network of tunnels under the city has existed since the 13th century, when limestone was mined at this place. Nevertheless, for hundreds of years, these underground tunnels remained unclaimed, and only created a danger for the city, which expanded (the area of the former quarries was within the city limits). In fact, a significant part of residential areas "hovered" in the air over the abyss.
In 1786, the bodies began to be stored in the catacombs. They immediately aroused morbid curiosity among the Parisian elite. In 1787, the catacombs were personally visited by Count d'Artois - the future King of France Charles X. However, until the 19th century, the tunnels were not an attraction open to the public.
Today the catacombs are spread over almost 11 square kilometers near Paris. While they are an interesting attraction, they also pose an engineering challenge for modern-day Paris. The weight of heavy buildings can cause the soil to sink, so high-rise buildings are usually not built in areas of the city that extend over the catacombs.
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