Catacombs of Paris
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Deep beneath the bustling streets and magnificent boulevards of Paris stretches a dark labyrinth of corridors and chambers named the Catacombs of Paris. This mysterious underworld, created in the late 18th century in disused underground quarries from the 15th century and later became a disturbing mass grave, holds a fascinating history and countless secrets. Journey into the depths of the City of Light, where the shadows of the past are still alive.
By Jessica Donev
By Jessica DonevSelect a date to find available tickets, tours & activities:
Tickets
Book a ticket in advance and avoid queues on the day of your visit!
Catacombs of Paris: Entry Ticket + Audio Guide
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Tours
Book a guided tour and learn even more about the Catacombs of Paris.Paris: Catacombs Special Access Tour
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Skip-the-Line: Paris Catacombs Tour with VIP Access to Restricted Areas
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Paris Catacombs Skip The Line Walking Guided Tour
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Browse through more tours and tickets around the Catacombs of Paris and find the right product for your trip.Paris: Catacombs Restricted Access Tour
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Paris: Catacombs Guided Tour
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Skip-the-Line Paris Catacombs Special Access Tour
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Paris Catacombs Guided Tour
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6 tips for visiting the Catacombs of Paris
The entrance to the <i>Catacombs</i> | Photo: Flickr, Joshua Veitch-Michaelis - CC-BY 2.0
1
Book the ticket onlineDuring peak season, the wait time at the ticket offices can be up to two hours. Due to the limited maximum number of visitors, the tickets to the catacombs are also limited and assigned a time slot. Buying an online ticket saves you having to queue! Regardless of the season, the catacombs are a crowd favorite, resulting in tickets selling out quickly, so ticket should be booked at least two to three weeks in advance.
Piled-up skulls | Photo: Unsplash, Chelms Varthoumlien
2
Respect the rulesAlthough the Catacombs of Paris are a tourist attraction, you should not forget that it is a resting place. The bones must not be touched or even taken. Photography is allowed for personal use, but the permission should be treated with respect.
3
Wear appropriate footwear and clothingEven though the catacombs are laid out at ground level, it doesn't hurt to wear shoes with a non-slip profile; the floor can be moist. In addition, there are 131 steps to descend into the catacombs and almost as many to ascend again. The average temperature is 14°C with high humidity. Therefore, it is advisable to bring a thin jacket or vest due to the longer duration of your stay. Since the ticket office and entrance are located outdoors, you should also dress appropriately depending on the weather!
4
Don't bring large luggageThe catacombs do not offer any storage facilties for your luggage. For security reasons, large items, including strollers, are not permitted. Please note that bags must be carried in front of the body or in the hand.
5
Discover more on a guided tourDuring a guided tour, you will receive priority entry, learn more about the 2,000-years of history of the catacombs in a small group, and visit places that are otherwise closed to visitors - including the secret chapel, which is decorated with skulls and femur bones!
6
Use the audio guideDuring your visit to the Paris catacombs, you will see a lot of bones, yet there are only a few commemorative plaques along the route. The audio guide, available in four languages, provides many interesting background details about the different memorials and is included in the regular tickets available on site as well as in our ticket offers here on TicketLens. For children's tickets purchased on site, the audio guide must be acquired for a small additional charge.
Our ticket offer in detail
Our ticket offer is very extensive. Here you will get an explanation of the various options that we offer.
Guided tours through the Catacombs
Take the opportunity and book a guided tour that lets you skip the queues. A guide will take you to places in the catacombs that you do not have access to as a visitor without a guide - for example, to a secluded cathedral or the Port Mahon corridor. Learn why the remains of over 6 million people were brought into the catacombs in the 18th century BC and delve into the dark history of Paris. The price of the tours often depends on how large the group is. The smaller the group, the more the tour will cost. However, we advise you to opt for a small group (search for your ticket under 'Semi-Private Tour'), to feel the atmosphere better!
Ticket to the Catacombs (Skip-the-Line) including Seine River Cruise
This ticket includes an entrance ticket to the Catacombs of Paris, which allows you to skip the lines as well as a 1-hour river cruise on the Seine. Descend into the city's underground and discover the dark side of Paris. An audio guide is also included and available in 4 languages. Afterwards, a river cruise awaits you on board a comfortable cruise ship, passing by the most beautiful attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Ticket to the Catacombs (Skip-the-Line) including a tour of Paris
Combine a tour of Paris with a guided tour of the catacombs. The tours focus on important aspects in the history of Paris and bring you to various highlights. After the tour, you'll take the metro to the catacombs. At the entrance, you receive the most important information about the catacombs and then make your way through the corridors on your own. Of course, you'll skip the line!
Special notes for your ticket purchase!
Book the tickets at least 2-3 weeks in advance. The Catacombs of Paris sell out quickly, especially during peak tourist season. You will therefore rarely get tickets on site, and if you do, you will have to queue for a long time. The audio guide is only included with tickets for adults. For children, the audioguide costs a little extra fee.
Artfully arranged bones in the catacombs | Photo: Unsplash, Chelms Varthoumlien
The Parisian City of the Dead
Since 1809, the former underground mines of Paris have offered visitors an eerily beautiful gallery of bones from 150 Parisian cemeteries. At the time, the catacombs in Paris were the largest necropolis in the world; the total number of remains is estimated at 6 million, in 1860 the last bones were added.The Quarry
In the Middle Ages, a complex network of mines and quarries was created up to 35m (114,8ft) deep under Paris. The limestone deposits necessary for the construction of the city were removed. The mines were mostly built by people who lacked the necessary knowledge and permissions, which made collapsing tunnels a daily occurrence.
The Parisian Catacombs
Unlike other major cities, the graves in the center of Paris were set up, which over the centuries were used as mass graves by several parishes at the same time. Due to the high mortality rate in the 17th and 18th centuries, the mass graves, such as Les Innocents, were so overcrowded that adjoining cellar walls collapsed. To create space, the resting period of the deceased was shortened, resulting in a health-threatening condition that emanated from the half-decomposed corpses.
Skulls | Photo: Flickr, Laura Meyers - CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Closure of the Graves
The precarious circumstances led King Louis XVI to order the transfer of hundreds of thousands of human remains to the former mines in the Paris district of Montrouge in 1785. To avoid a scandal, the macabre solution was carried out over 15 months in the evening by singing priests and altar boys as a procession. Upon reaching the quarries, the bones were thrown into a 20-meter-deep (65.6ft) shaft in Avenue René-Coty. In the underground tunnels, which were several hundred meters long, the remains were stacked unsorted, making it impossible to associate the deceased ever since. The Parisian parish cemeteries were closed, and it has since been forbidden to enter the catacombs.
A monument among the bones | Photo: Unsplash, Liam McGarry
Transformation into a Museum
When Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor in 1804, he assigned the bone repository to the General Inspector Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury. He was fascinated by Gothic literature, which inspired him to make the catacombs accessible to the public as a museum. Over several months, the bones and skulls were artfully stacked by the quarry workers, creating patterns, murals, and collages adorned with signs and crosses from the former graves.
The usage at the time
Due to the constant temperatures and high humidity, the underground systems were used by beer brewers and mushroom growers until they had to make way for the construction of the Paris Metro in the 1900s. In the 19th century, concerts and events also took place here. Among the most famous visitors of the time were the Austrian Emperor Charles X, the King of Sweden, and Napoleon.
The Cataphiles
Especially in the 80s, the Cataphiles (French for catacomb lovers) caused excitement by gaining unauthorized access to the underground labyrinths. They entered the tunnels through secret entrances and held illegal concerts and parties. The establishment of a special police unit was intended to deter illegal visitors thereafter. This unit discovered a generously equipped cinema in 2004, which even had a dining area.
Catacombs | Unsplash: Liam McGarry
A tour of the catacombs
The museum, which if open to visitors, shows that Paris is not only the city of love and light but also the city of the dead. Find out more about what you will discover in the museum here.Catacombs of Paris | Unsplash: Mathew Browne
Barrière d’enfer (Gate of Hell)
As soon as you ascend through the entrance, also called Barrière d’enfer, 131 steps take you down about 5 floors, or 35m (114.8). From here, you reach the part of the museum that is used as an ossuary through an illuminated corridor.
Catacombs of Paris | Unsplash: Chelms Varthoumlien
Wall Inscriptions
The inscriptions on the walls served the workers at the time for orientation in the tunnels. They also mark inspections at various stages of construction and maintenance. You will also find a marking for the Arcueil Aqueduct, which was built under Marie de Medici from 1613-1623. This aqueduct brought water through stone tunnels just below the surface. Later, a part of the aqueduct collapsed, which remains a problem to this day.
The Empire of Death
Underground, just before you see the bones, there is a door. The following words are engraved on it: 'Stop, this is the empire of death'. After you have passed this door, you find yourself in the ossuary.
La Fontain de la Samaritaine
The Samaritan Women's Fountain is actually a spring. The round area around the spring is home to the bones of the Cimetière des innocents, the Cemetery of the Innocents. The spring provides access to clean water. The workers use this water to mix the mortar for the bone constructions.
Port Mahon Corridor
During a guided tour, the guide takes you through the Port Mahon corridor. At the end of the hallway, there are magnificent sculptures that are meant to be a replica of the palace of Port Mahon on Menorca, Spain. Francois Decure, a French quarry worker at the time, who was imprisoned in this palace in Spain, carved it from his memory into a limestone wall and later died at the same spot while working on an access staircase for visitors. This part of the catacombs is not accessible to visitors without a guide.
Monuments of the French Revolution
Many victims of the Guillotine were taken directly to the catacombs of Paris instead of a cemetery. Among them were leaders of the revolution like Robespierre or Danton. They were all beheaded in 1794. Some claim that the holes in the skulls are evidence that individuals were killed by gunshot. However, there is no proof of this. Various signs refer to important events of the French Revolution. An example is the commemorative plaque about the battle at the Réveillon factory in Paris' St. Antoine on April 20, 1789, where a protest by the employees ended in a massacre.
Famous Personalities
Molière and Jean de la Fontaine were buried in public cemeteries, then moved to the catacombs in the late 18th century and transported to the Père Lachaise cemetery in 1804. The remains of Molière and Jean de la Fontaine were supposed to help the newly opened cemetery gain fame. However, whether these are truly the correct bones of the two personalities is questionable.
The tombstone of Francoise Gillain
In the museum section of the catacombs, there is only a single tombstone. Francoise Gillian was a French academician who was crowned with the Crown of Virtue by the L’Academie Francaise in 1784 for her work with the French language. She has a tombstone in the catacombs because she spent years advocating for the release of a writer from the Bastille who was wrongfully detained there. This tombstone reminds us of the over 6 million other people who were laid to rest here without a tombstone.
Crypt of the Passion
Here is a Tibia Rotunda, a sculpture in the shape of a barrel made of bones, which hides a column supporting the ceiling. On April 2, 1897, a concert advertised in the newspaper took place here, attended by 100 people who had to arrive on foot. Visitors were asked to leave their carriages at home in order to avoid any commotion. A concert was performed for the elite group, featuring pieces such as ’Marche Funèbre’ by Chopin and ‘Danse Macarbe’ by Camille Saint-Saëns.
A night in the catacombs?
In 2015, Airbnb created a buzz when they advertised a night in the catacombs. For 350,000 €, you could spend a night in the catacombs, including a private concert. However, the entire project was prohibited before anyone could book the offer. Would you spend a night here?
Cataphiles celebrating | Flickr: Hugo Clément CC-BY-SA 2.0
The Cataphiles
The catacombs of Paris are only partially accessible to the general public. However, there are people who have made it their task to further explore the tunnel systems in their free time.Cataphile in a flooded tunnel | Flickr: Hugo Clément CC-BY-SA 2.0
The Catacombs of Paris
If you wander around Paris and a shiver runs through you, you might be walking over a grave. The Catacombs of Paris once stretched for about 300km (186.4 miles) under all districts of Paris, except for the 1st-4th Arrondissement. Today, they are accessible to visitors as a museum through the Barrière d’enfer (Gate to Hell) over a length of 2km (1.2 miles). There, you can admire the powerful ossuary and the artistic arrangement of the bones.
Cataphiles in a narrow tunnel | Flickr: Hugo Clément CC-BY-SA 2.0
The remaining 298km (185.2 miles) of the Catacombs
The Catacombs were not only used as an ossuary. During the Second World War, for example, the tunnels were used as hiding places for soldiers. Over the centuries, the Paris Catacombs inspired scientists and researchers from all over France and Europe for studies on underground flora, photography, and pathology.
Warning
WARNING! We expressly point out that it is forbidden to enter the underground labyrinth of Paris. A special unit of the police guards the tunnels. Those caught in the tunnels even have to pay a fine. However, neither the fine nor the dangers seem to deter visitors.
The Cataphiles
Even today, there is a group of people who belong to the subculture of the Cataphiles. These are individuals who use or explore the unsecured tunnels of the catacombs illegally. Hidden entrances to the catacombs, used for descent, exist all over Paris. Only 150 members of the Cataphiles are known to the police and enjoy a trust that allows them to explore and map the catacombs illegally. The other group of Cataphiles use the catacombs for parties, concerts, and even as a cinema. During these events, the caves are often left polluted, ancient burial sites are damaged, and fire and safety and escape route regulations are violated, posing a danger to all participants.
The dangerous tunnels
Many reports or YouTubers provide insights into the adventurous explorations of the Cataphiles. The tour starts after descending through a hidden entrance. Here, inexperienced individuals can already get lost, as there are countless passages. These are often very low and narrow or even flooded. Often, names have been given to the underground passages to better find your way on the map. You often find rooms that can even be compared to a living room. You'll find clothes, mirrors, radios and everything you need for the underground. In addition, almost all the corridors are full of graffiti.
A night in the corridors
Today, there are even illegally promoted Online Maps that make it possible to explore the tunnels in the Parisian underground. Nevertheless, the exploration is no less dangerous and still forbidden. Many, however, still wish to explore the corridors to reach a certain goal in the catacombs. To get there, you need a very good sense of direction and, ideally, hire a guide who is truly familiar with the underground. In the tunnels, visitors often meet like-minded individuals who party down below, casually drink a beer, or simply enjoy the atmosphere. The goal of these exploration trips could be, for example, the bone room, a place that was also used as a burial site but does not serve as a museum. Another goal could be the cinema, where graffiti of all the movies shown so far have been sprayed on the walls. Another event is the black Masses, a ritual in which Satan is worshipped.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the catacombs accessible for people with disabilities?
The museum is not accessible for people with disabilities due to the restricted underground location of the site. To reach the catacombs, 131 steps down and 112 steps up must be managed. The facility has toilets at the entrance and exit. Read more.
What is the minimum age for the museum?
Guests of all ages are granted access, however, children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. Read more.
Is it allowed to bring food into the catacombs?
Please note that bringing food and drinks into the museum is prohibited. Read more.
Is it allowed to carry bags and backpacks during the visit?
For security reasons, large bags and backpacks exceeding the dimensions of 40 x 30 x 20 cm (15.7 x 11.9 x 7.9 inch), as well as other large items, are prohibited in the museum, and the resting place may not be entered with a motorcycle helmet. Small bags must be carried in front of the body or in the hand. The museum does not have storage facilities. Please note that strollers are not allowed, but baby carriers may be used. Read more.
How much does the audioguide cost?
The audio guide is included in the regular adult tickets, but not in children's tickets. It is available in German, English, French, and Spanish and can be rented on-site for a small additional fee. Read more.
Is there a souvenir shop?
Not far from the exit, there's a souvenir shop offering unique and unusual souvenirs related to the catacombs. Creations by local artists inspired by the catacombs are also sold in the souvenir shop. Read more.
What should be considered when booking tickets?
Tickets purchased online are only valid on the specified day and cannot be exchanged or refunded. Postponing the date is not possible. Please note that entry outside of the selected time slot cannot be guaranteed. The entrance to the catacombs is not located at the same place as the exit. Read more.
Is it allowed to take photos and videos?
For personal purposes, videos and photos without flash and tripod are allowed. However, bear in mind that the catacombs are a resting place, and therefore the use of photography and videos should be handled respectfully. Read more.
Are dogs allowed in the museum?
No animals are allowed on the premises. Read more.
General information
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1 av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy
75014 Paris
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Written byJessica DonevJessica is the definition of Jack of all trades. When she wants to do something, she just does it. That's why Jessica is an event manager, professional dancer, trainer, content creator, speaker / presenter in training and much more. Having traveled the world a lot, she knows what's important when traveling and shares it with you here on TicketLens.
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