In Depth History:

It was decided to place the corpses into the centuries-old tunnels beneath the streets of Paris. These tunnels had existed since the 13th-century when limestone quarries were still mined.

The firsts of the many complaints that eventually led to this, was in Les Halles, near Paris' biggest cemetery, Les Innocents. The residents complained that there was a horrible stench and many perfume stores complained that the odor wasn’t allowing them to do business. Eventually, in 1736, Louis XV banned further burials in the capital. However, Churches didn’t want to move the corpses so everything was left in place.

Then an outbreak of disease hit in 1780. The May rain made the ground damp, it caused a wall of a restaurant cellar in Rue de la Lingerie to collapse. Also, another incident happened where the walls of local quarries cave in.

After these incidents, in 1786 city officials began to empty the cemeteries and moved the dead into the tunnels. The process occurred late at night in order to not disturb the residents. The priests came and chanted for the dead during the moving process during the night as well. After the process was over, over 6 million were moved into the ossuaries. Some of the dead include Jean-Paul Marat and Maximilien de Robespierre.

Hello everyone, Vintage here!

Even though Halloween is over, I still wanted to talk about something scary yet interesting!

I’m sure many of you have heard about the Paris Catacombs but what about the history about it?

Overview: