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The most horrible museum of the world

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Travel Articles >> Locations >> Europe >> France >> Paris Travel Articles >> Museums

After several months of reconstruction, the Parisian catacombs - the most doomed sights of the city - are again open for the tourists. The heap of bones, covering the area of 11 000 square meters consists of more than 6 million of human skeletons. However, for the tourists there is only a part of it open - with the length of about 1,5 kilometers. The Parisian catacombs are yearly attended by 160 thousands of people. This horrible labyrinth is located in the very center of the capital of France. The entrance to the dungeon is called the "Hell Gate" and the narrow winded stairs descends steeply down. 90 steps cut off in the stone lead to the tunnels. The whole Paris has been built from this stone.

In the XIII-th century the city has become to grow very quickly and demanded more and more material for the construction of the houses, palaces and churches. Exactly because of this there appeared these quarries that have cut part of the city. The cemetery place deficit was during the strongly cold winters and during the epidemics. To find the free place to bury the new bodies, the remains of the dead were first placed into special "skeleton houses". These spread stench around the whole city, till the Ludwig XVI-th has ordered to move all these bodies to the quarry dungeons of Paris, where an inscription has been made on the iron gate, leading to the tunnel - "Stop! Here is the kingdom of the dead".

When in XVIII-th century they began to eliminate the old cemeteries , they decided to move the remains from there to the catacombs, that were already in the ancient times dug in the Montparnas district. During the XVIII-XIX-th centuries the remains from the closing cemeteries have been moved to the underground crypt. The catacombs galleries were specially equipped to store the larger amount of skeletons, some of them even have the skulls in an organized order. The fragment of the underground cemetery has been equipped for the touristic visits, being one of the most horrible museums on the Earth. The catacombs are open for visits from Tuesday till Sunday from 9:30 till 17:00. The cost of the full ticket is 5 euro.

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Article Submitted On: February 19, 2008