Posted on 09/03/2009 7:01:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In underground passageways that snake underneath the French capital, nearly six million people who died of disease in the Middle Ages share a final resting place.
The vaults, packed with skulls and bones dating from as far back as the Middle Ages, are located on Paris' Left Bank near Place Denfert Rochereau... and are part of the nearly 185 miles of underground passageways that are believed to be part of the catacombs network.
...John Mamburg, tourist from Grand Rapids, Michigan: "I think this is astounding. I've never been around so many, like you've been to cemeteries and things like that, I've never been to anything that is so insanely dense in death. It's amazing."
The catacombs have their origin in the late eighteenth century, when city officials were searching for a solution to health problems caused by the city's overflowing cemeteries. The 200 or so cemeteries located in Paris at the time were the source of numerous diseases which were contaminating the city's soil and water supply. The then Lieutenant General of Police, Alexandre Lenoir (len-waar), suggested that the bones from the cemeteries would be transferred underground into the abandoned gypsum and limestone quarries at the southern edge of the city.
...After snaking through these eerie, dark and moist passageways stacked with skulls, visitors will no doubt view the splendor of Paris in a different light.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
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To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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And then there’s the legendary, giant, Paris rat.
I’m SO not going into the stinky catacombs. My ancestors are NOT there!
But thanks for the ping....
*shudder*
I’d like to go see it person, I hear it quite an adventure.
I love Paris. So many cool things to see and the Catacombs is one of them. I recommend it.
Also recommend the Sewer museum. It sounds icky but it’s actually very interesting.
Also, look at the grave of Victor Noir in Pere Lachaise Cemetary.
I could go on and on. Catacombs are thumbs up though!
If it’s all the same to you, I’ll spend my time browsing the bouquinistes and sipping thé au lait in the Tuileries.
BTW many who go through the tour try to take souveniers. There is a search at the end of the tour.
I think I saw that on the tour. Sometimes you just gotta throw the dog a bone.
Fallout?
Whew! The genealogists on the list must be shuddering for all those lost graves and broken lineages.
The bones are beautiful. I almost forget that each of those skulls was a person, and one or more of them are probably related to me on my dad’s side.
Aren’t the catacombs where the French vampires live in Anne Rice and other novels? It’s fitting home for them.
This Paris is dense in life.
Given that whole families tended to get wiped out together in epidemics, chances are good that many of those poor souls left no descendants.
Somewhere years ago, on the web, I found (but apparently did not save) a cool essay about genealogy. Something like, if you donate your genealogical stuff and/or a family history as a bequest to a library or the like, if you then listen carefully, you can hear your great-great-great-granddaughter screaming with delight far in the future. :’)
And drunk. She couldn’t get drunk enough for my tastes though... not that I’d dream of taking advantage of a woman in that condition... just that I’d never take advantage of THAT particular woman in ANY condition. :’)
One wonders A) how the bones got excarnated, B) who took the time to stack ‘em, C) how much they must have gotten paid to risk handling remains of people who’d died en masse like that. :’)
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