Those living in the Les Halles neighborhood near Les Innocents , the city's oldest and largest cemetery were among the first to complain, reporting the cemetery exuded a strong smell of decomposing flesh—even perfume stores claimed they couldn't do business because of the off-putting smell.
In , Louis XV issued an edict banning all burials from occurring inside the capital, but because of Church pushback, which didn't want cemeteries disturbed or moved, nothing else was done.
It wasn't until , however, that anything was done. That year, a prolonged period of spring rain caused a wall around Les Innocents to collapse, spilling rotting corpses into a neighboring property. The city needed a better place to put its dead. So it went to the tunnels, moving bones from the cemeteries five stories underground into Paris' former quarries. Cemeteries began to be emptied in , beginning with Les Innocents.
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Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops. Science Coronavirus Coverage How antivirals may change the course of the pandemic. Early Christians modeled their burial practices on Jewish customs, although they were forced by Roman rules to bury outside the city limits. Since land was expensive, they went underground, digging an estimated miles of tunnels through Rome's soft volcanic tuff, and building networks of rooms lined with rectangular niches called loculi.
Later, more complex tombs included cubical small rooms that served as a family tomb and arcosolia large niches with an arch over the opening, also used for families. Both were often decorated with religious frescos, gold medallions, statues, and other art. The idea that persecuted Christians secretly worshipped there, however, is a Romantic-era legend.
By the early 5th century, barbarians had invaded Rome and began ransacking the tombs, so the remains of interred saints and martyrs were moved to more secure locations in churches around the city. The catacombs were forgotten for centuries, until miners accidentally rediscovered one under the Via Salaria in That set off a rush for relics often of dubious provenance.
They weren't the first, but the Paris catacombs might be the most famous in the world, and little can compete with them for sheer macabre glamor.
Created by the Romans as limestone quarries to build the city above, their current use dates from the late 18th century, when overcrowded cemeteries around the city sparked public health concerns. Starting in the late 18th century, officials took charge of the situation by relocating the bones—from an estimated six to seven million people—to the former quarries, which were specially blessed and consecrated for that purpose. The catacombs were opened as a public curiosity in the 19th century, and today visitors can see the bones piled into artful arrangements.
One design is shaped like a keg, another like a heart. Other attractions include an underground spring, a sepulchral lamp, sculptures created by a quarryman, and special exhibits. Only part of the roughly feet of tunnels is open to the public, although that hasn't stopped intrepid urban explorers, artists, and thieves from journeying to the off-limits sections.
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