Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs of Paris were not originally built as a burial ground. This vast, intricate labyrinth began as a series of limestone quarries that supplied the building materials for much of the city, including the construction of Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Louvre. By the late eighteenth century, the city faced a severe public health crisis because its central cemeteries were so overflowing that the smell of decomposition became unbearable to local residents. To solve this, officials transformed these abandoned underground quarries into a municipal ossuary. Over several decades, millions of human remains were carefully relocated from these crowded graveyards into the dark, silent tunnels deep beneath the streets of Paris.