There is a cemetery hundreds of kilometers underground in Paris

If you've ever read Victor Hugo's works, you'll know that Paris has a maze of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and sewers running like a spider web.

Catacombs in the heart of Paris are the resting place of about 6 million French people.

If you've ever read Victor Hugo's works, you'll know that Paris has a maze of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and sewers running like a spider web.

But perhaps few people know that a few branches of that tunnel system will lead you to an underground cemetery - the burial place of more than 6 million corpses in the capital of light.

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Catacombes de Paris (Paris Catacombs).

Catacombes de Paris (Catacombs of Paris) is also known as Ossuaire municipal - City cemetery. Hundreds of years ago, the tomb was more than 300km long, about 60m deep in the heart of Paris was a quarry exploited for the purpose of building the city.

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Black death pandemic.

At the end of the eighteenth century, cemeteries in Paris fell into a cramped situation, having many hygiene problems after going through many wars and epidemics, especially the XIV plague.

In France alone, in the 1340s, 7 million people were killed by the disease known as 'Black Death'. It was this epidemic that helped push the cemeteries in Paris at that time into overload.

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The cemeteries in Paris became surreal because of "black death pandemic".

This is also the indirect cause of the birth of the Catacombs of Paris. In 1785, the French National Council announced that it would remove the Innocents cemetery in the Les Halles neighborhood, renovate the old quarry in the suburbs and transfer the remains to it.

At this time, this place is the remains of a cemetery dating back to the 10th century with 2 million people buried. The amount of newly created remains and burial pits at that time was extremely numerous, sometimes causing the walls around Paris Catacombs to be at risk of collapse.

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The amount of newly created remains and burial pits at that time was immense.

Since its inception, this macabre location has caused much curiosity for both residents and famous politicians. People like Count Artois, Emperor Napoleon III or King Francois I of Austria each had the opportunity to visit this underground crypt.

However, the specific historical documents on these visits are not many, even the content is not disclosed to the outside.

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Catacombes de Paris has a lot of entrances.

Due to the characteristic of an old mine, Catacombes de Paris has many entrances. Even to meet the need to bury the deceased, the government at that time also renovated the grave to easily bring the corpses to the ground.

They designed the secret tunnels that led from the cemetery to the basement of the churches, hospitals in Paris, forming a labyrinth intertwined just below the "capital of light".

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There have been many people lost in this tomb.

With complicated terrain structure, it is not difficult to understand if those who come to Catacombes de Paris will be surprised and lost a few times. Even at this grave, there have been extremely tragic events. The most famous is the story of the ghost of resentment of Philibert Aspairt.

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The main gate of the crypt with the words: 'Stop, this is the kingdom of the dead!'.

Philibert Aspairt was the gatekeeper of Val-de-Grace hospital during the French revolution. In November 1793, the man decided to take advantage of the Catacombes de Paris tunnel to find the famous Chartreuse wine in the basement of a monastery in Paris, near the Jardin de Luxembourg.

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The inscription on the stele: "Remembering Philibert Aspairt lost in the tomb on November 3, 1973 and was found 11 years later, buried here - on April 3, 1984".

However, Philibert was lost. More surprisingly, this man could not find the exit and died right in the maze of Catacombes de Paris.

It was not until 11 years later that the people discovered Philibert's body and decided to bury him right here.

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They decorate the basement by lining up human bones and carving miniature cities on stone.

Over hundreds of years of existence, by the 1980s, Paris Catacombs once again attracted the attention of the public. Some French artists, after visiting this place, came up with an inspiration to build here art works.

They decorate the basement by lining up human bones and carving miniature cities on stone. The French call these artists the Cataphiles .

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In 2005, a very small part of the tomb was opened for tourists to visit.

In 2005, a very small part of the tomb was opened for tourists to visit. You will be instantly stunned when looking at the pillars, the entrance, the walls . most of them are covered by human bones.

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Update 18 December 2018
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