Who is buried in the Paris catacombs?

At nearly 200 miles long, the Paris Catacombs is one of the largest catacombs in the world (second only to the Odessa Catacombs in Ukraine).

They were created in the late 1700s to accommodate a growing number of deceased Parisians and address structural problems in the city’s existing cemeteries. Anyone who has been to Paris will have been struck by how many cemeteries there are, with 20 being administered by the Paris municipality. But in the 18th century there were hundreds. Some of these cemeteries were becoming overcrowded, and some were even collapsing upon their foundations.

Rather than build a new site, the authorities decided to repurpose limestone quarries underneath the city for the purpose of housing the dead. The Ossuaire municipal de Paris was opened in 1786, and the first bones were transferred there.

It was a piecemeal process. Bones from many existing cemeteries, including Les Innocents, Saint-Étienne-des-Grès and Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux were moved to the catacombs. By the early 19th century, the remains of millions of Parisians had been moved to the catacombs. The transfers continued for decades, but the newly deceased continued to be buried in overground cemeteries rather than in the catacombs. A notable exception can be found in some of the victims of the French Revolution, such as those killed during the September massacre of 1792, as the Catacombs provided a logistically simple resting place for so many dead bodies.

The catacombs may hold the bones of over six million people, but there is only one recorded instance of someone dying in them. In 1793, Philibert Aspairt, a door keeper for the Val-de-Grâce hospital, got lost in the catacombs. His body wasn’t discovered until more than ten years later, in 1804, mere metres away from a staircase leading to an exit. Aspairt was buried where his body was found, and his tombstone reads:

A LA MEMOIRE DE PHILIBERT ASPAIRT PERDU DANS CETTE CARRIERE LE III NOVEMBRE MDCCXCIII RETROUVE ONZE ANS APRES ET INHUME EN LA MEME PLACE LE XXX AVRIL MDCCCIV

TO THE MEMORY OF PHILIBERT ASPAIRT, LOST IN THIS QUARRY ON 3 NOVEMBER 1793; FOUND ELEVEN YEARS LATER AND BURIED IN THE SAME PLACE ON 30 APRIL 1804.

Nearly 6 million people are believed to have been buried in the catacombs. That’s a lot of bones!

Notable figures include the writer François Rabelais, the political philosopher Montesquieu, the philosopher Blaise Pascal and the poet and playwright Jean Racine, as well as noted individuals who perished during the French Revolution, such as Georges Jacques Danton and Maximilien Robespierre.

There are no plans to add any more bones or bodies to the Paris Catacombs, but the site is maintained as a heritage site.

The Paris Catacombs are one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions. While most of the Catacombs are off limits to visitors, around a mile of the tunnels are open to the public. It’s recommended to purchase a ticket in advance, as visitor numbers are limited.

You won’t get lost like Aspair. Guided tours are available and the public space is well lit, allowing you to marvel at the decorative displays of millions of bones - a simultaneously morbid and beautiful sight.

Find out more on the official website.

Interested in learning more about the Catacombs? Check out episode 2 of Season 2 of the Learn French With Alexa podcast!