Les Catacombes

In 1785 it was decided to solve the hygiene and aesthetic problems posed by Paris’ overflowing cemeteries by exhuming the bones and storing them in the tunnels of three disused quarries. One ossuary created in 1810 is now known as the Catacombes, which can be visited. After descending 20m (130 steps) from street level, visitors follow 1.7km of underground corridors in which the bones and skulls of millions of former Parisians are neatly stacked along the walls. During WWII these tunnels were used as a headquarters by the Resistance.

The route through the Catacombes begins at a small, dark-green belle-époque-style building in the centre of a grassy area of av Colonel Henri Roi-Tanguy. The exit is at the top of 83 steps on rue Remy Dumoncel ([metro] Mouton Duvernet), 700m to the southwest.