Catacombs of Paris

Extending south from the Barrière d'Enfer former city gate, this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city's overflowing cemeteries. Preparation work began not long after a 1774 series of gruesome Saint Innocents-cemetery-quarter basement wall collapses added a sense of urgency to the cemetery-eliminating measure, and from 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris' cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire. The ossuary remained largely forgotten until it became a novelty-place for concerts and other private events in the early 19th century; after further renovations and the construction of accesses around Place Denfert-Rochereau, it was open to public visitation from 1874. Since 2013, the Catacombs number among the 14 City of Paris Museums managed by Paris Musées.

Address: 1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris, France
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 8:30PM
Public transit access: Denfert-Rochereau
Number of visitors: 480,000 (2018)
Burials: Maximilien Robespierre, Philibert Aspairt