Random Details about Paris Catacomb Which Hide A Secret Cinema Club And Pools (11 items)

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  (#1) A Controversial Video May Show A Man Who Died In The Catacombs

  In the early 2000s, a video reportedly recovered from a dusty camera found in the catacombs aired on several TV channels. The director, who released the video as a part of a documentary on haunted locations, said he received the camera from so-called "cataphiles," unauthorized catacombs explorers. The origins of the video are murky, leading many to claim the video is a hoax.

  Regardless of whether it's a fact or fiction, the video is chilling as it shows a man growing progressively unbalanced, panicked, and lost. No one knows what happened to the man in the video, which leads speculators to assume he died in the catacombs. Viewers pore over the video for clues like markings on the walls and mysterious, muffled sounds.
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  (#2) 18th-Century Paris Was Full Of Dead Bodies Escaping Their Graves

  One of the most densely populated European cities, Paris, France, needed creative solutions to deal with the bodies accumulating when people passed. By the 18th century, Parisian cemeteries were so packed that frequent discoveries of corpses occurred during the digging of new graves.

  Les Halles, once Paris's primary food market, bumped up against Les Innocents, the city's oldest cemetery, and the overcrowded burial ground quickly became a problem. Even the perfumeries in Les Halles couldn't mask the stench of the decaying bodies.

  Louis XV and XVI tried to enforce proclamations ordering all burials to take place outside of the capital, but had little success. Few changes occurred until 1780, when heavy rain caused a wall in Les Innocents to collapse, filling the surrounding properties with bodies.

  The city decided to move the bodies into the limestone quarries tucked away five stories beneath Paris. It took 12 years to transport all the bones from the city into the catacombs, and by the end, roughly six to seven million souls found their final resting place in the catacombs.
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  (#3) A Mysterious Group Hosted Illegal Movie Screenings And Parties In The Catacombs

  People are still discovering secrets inside the catacombs. In 2004, the Parisian police explored a formerly remote section of the catacombs as a part of their training routine. In their search, they encountered a sign warning people to turn back due to construction, even though there were no official development plans in the area. After they passed it, they heard the sound of dogs growling and barking in the darkness. They found out the commotion originated from a recording played over a sound system, likely installed to scare off curious intruders.

  As the police pressed on, they uncovered an elaborate setup inside a more than 1,600-square-foot cavern, complete with a sizable movie screen, as well as seats chiseled into the catacomb stone. The makeshift cinema neighbored a bar and eatery wired with electricity and phone lines.

  The officers eventually exited the site. When they returned a few days later to analyze the scene further, they found the phone and power lines shut off, as well as a note awaiting them, which read, "Do not try to find us."
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  (#4) One Man's Body Was Found Steps From The Exit

  Authorities attribute only one confirmed death to the Paris Catacombs. In 1793, Philibert Aspairt went into the catacombs. Officially, no one knows why Aspairt ventured beneath the city, but according to legend, he was looking for a hidden cache of alcohol. Armed with only a candle, he went in.

  Eleven years later, they found his body, which was heartbreakingly close to an exit.
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  (#5) Underground Pools In The Catacombs Attract Adventurers And Scuba Divers

  While the catacombs might seem like an endless maze of tunnels just waiting to end you, there are a few surprises in store for experienced explorers. Over the years, intrepid visitors have discovered naturally occurring pools appearing like something out of a fantasy.

  The pools are a favorite haunt for a select group of adventurers who spent years journeying into the tunnels, becoming unofficial experts on the twists and turns of the catacombs. Some people take scuba equipment to explore the waters further.
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  (#6) We Don't Know The Full Extent Of The Catacombs' Sprawling Layout

  Experts have a difficult time trying to figure out exactly how much ground the catacombs cover, and what unexplored corners may still exist underground. The Paris Catacombs go at least 300 feet deep. Additionally, chambers and chasms became filled with water over the years, but there’s not much technical information to go off of from there.

  Because of the catacombs' hazardous nature, the city sealed off much of the underground passageways, and only about one mile of tunnel space is open to the public. Officials recommend guides even for this section, but don't mandate them. Visitors should refrain from venturing beyond the tunnels available to the public. It is too easy for someone to get lost if they were to go off on their own.
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  (#7) Exploring The Catacombs Can Be Life-Threatening

  The catacombs are an inherently unnerving place to visit, and also dangerous to the ill-prepared. There is no definitive map of the dark, unstable passageways beyond the small section open to the public. Accordingly, a single wrong turn is enough to disorient someone to the point of becoming lost. It's a terrifying prospect, wandering underground, surrounded by bones, with no idea how to find daylight.

  However, this isn't necessarily a death sentence, as a 17-year-old and 16-year-old found out in 2017. The teens spent three days lost in the catacombs. Fortunately, the authorities saved them after rescue dogs tracked them down. The pair went to a hospital for hypothermia treatment.
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  (#8) There Are Heaps Of Bodies Behind The Catacombs' Ossuary

  When tourists visit the catacombs, they can look forward to a few exhibits arranged for public consumption. There's the "Workshop," which harkens back to the original quarry, and the Port-Mahon corridor showcasing sculpted works by a skilled quarryman. It all leads to the ossuary, which is likely what most people picture when they think of the Paris Catacombs. Here, people can see the skulls and bones arranged in a decorative display - it's equal parts alluring and unsettling.

  An inspector organized the display in the early 1800s as an alternative to how the original remains were in piles. If you glanced behind the wall of bones, you would see heaps of remains going back to the edges of the cavern.
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  (#9) Bodies Were Moved To The Catacombs Under The Cover Of Night

  During the initial decision to remove the rotting corpses from their overstuffed graves and take them underground, the city of Paris had to figure out a way to make such a grisly task more palatable to the populace. The solution was to transport bodies only at night, thus shielding the general public from the morbid sight of people wheeling corpses down the street by the cartload.

  Workers loaded up carts with remains under cover of darkness, then draped black veils over the bodies to further obscure the morbid cargo. Since the people were also defacing burial sites, priests would sing a service for the departed each night along the workers' route to lessen the disrespect for the remains.
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  (#10) Royalty And Revolutionaries Alike Are Buried Within The Catacombs

  With nearly seven million corpses strewn throughout the catacombs, it makes sense a few noteworthy people would crop up among them. Famous authors of old Parisian society, such as La Fontaine, Rabelais, and Perrault, are in the catacombs. Moreover, the bones of Louis XIV's preferred architect, Hardouin-Mansart, also ended up beneath the city as a final resting place.

  During the French Revolution, a fair number of the executed also found their way into the tunnels. Disposed underground were the bodies of Antoine Lavoisier, who founded modern chemistry; Louis XVI's sister Madame Elisabeth; and Robespierre, the virulent and vocal figurehead of the uprising.
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  (#11) The Catacombs Were Originally Quarries Used To Build Paris

  Paris's foundation is a massive limestone deposit formed over the past 45 million years. When the Romans mined the city, they established huge quarries that formed 187 miles of tunnels under the earth. Those same quarries would go on to provide the necessary materials to build Parisian landmarks like the Louvre and Notre-Dame Cathedral.

  Later abandoned, the mined quarries inadvertently created the perfect storage solution for Paris’s substantial corpse problem.

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