The Catacombs of Paris are a municipal ossuary within former limestone quarries, holding remains transferred from the city’s overcrowded cemeteries. Its arranged galleries connect a public health crisis with quarry engineering, scientific curiosity and remembrance.
Quick facts
The Paris Municipal Ossuary was consecrated on April 7, 1786, in former Tombe-Issoire quarries.
Transfers began with bones from the Saints-Innocents cemetery in 1785 and continued from other Paris cemeteries into the nineteenth century.
The public Catacombs visit is a one-way route of about 1.5 kilometres; the current official visitor guidance lists 131 steps down and 112 up.
Get directions to Catacombs of Paris. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.
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Guide
At Place Denfert-Rochereau, the entrance leads down into a specific, managed site: the Paris Municipal Ossuary, housed in former limestone quarries. “Catacombs” is often used loosely for the vast quarry network beneath Paris, but the public route is only one small section. This distinction matters. These passages are both an underground industrial landscape and a burial place for the remains of millions of Parisians.
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