| Paris catacombs |
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| Written by i j |
| Wednesday, 13 January 2010 08:41 |
STOP! Here starts the reign of death!
That’s what can be read in the gates that lead to Paris Catacombs announcing what should be an obligated visit to any gothic that goes to the city.
Paris Catacombs is the colloquial name of “Les Carrières du Paris” (Paris quarry in English), but I do think that nowadays “catacomb” is much more appropriate than “quarry”.
These catacombs were created during Greco-Romanic epoch, then they excavated some tunnels 20 meters beneath the surface searching for limestone, those excavations took place in the base of montparnasse, montrouge and montsorius and they have a total length of about 300km of tunnels and chambers.
In the XVIII century, thanks to a series of epidemic diseases local authorities were obliged to use this tunnels as a store for human remains, they made some discrete nocturnal trips to transfer human remains from cemeteries to de tunnels beneath the city.
In deed they needed a few decades to end the transfer of more than 6 million people.
Since then and regardless of the gloomy place in which the quarry has transformed, the catacombs have been an important part of Paris history, for example, they were used by French resistance against German invasion during the Second World War.
In these catacombs you will be able to find sinister skulls with broken jaws that extend along an interminable row that get lost in the dark of the narrow subterranean corridors.
There is a rumour that the catacombs are haunted by a spectre, a ghost of a beautiful lady dressed in white, from time to time she appears in front of a tourist that get momentarily alone. When this happens, according to the legend, the visitor should be sure that he will die before the end of the year.
I have to say that not all of the 300Km are open for tourist, in deed there is only a small portion open to this kind of visits, regardless of that is well known that a lot of explorers or adventurers enter those tunnels for going where no one else dares to go.
Part of them have been used clandestinely as locals for parties or improvised cinemas, the most famous of them was named "La Mexicaine de Perforation" it’s a French art movement that suited a few rooms in the catacombs and equipped it with electric light, food, drinks and even telephone line.
The entrance for tourist visitors are placed at Arrondissement 14 (XIVe) at Denfert-Rochereau square, just in front of metro exit, you can use those lines to get there.
If you want to go by bus you should use lines 38 or 68.
The price for a visit to this place is 7€ but as usual in all museums in Paris you can get a discount if you are younger or too old.
Youngers than 13 years old don’t pay entrance fee… although I’m not sure this is an adequate place for such a young guy.
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| Last Updated on Friday, 26 March 2010 17:02 |
