The forbidden tunnels of the Paris catacombs

A somewhat unknown aspect of France is that many of its cities, towns and buildings are built right on top of old mines that were closed long ago.

The reason for choosing these sites is to take advantage of the galleries of old exhausted deposits, converting them into other types of infrastructures. For example, a town can take advantage of these tunnels to transform them into sewers or water conduits.

A recurring case is that of the so-called “châteaux” in winegrowing estates. A “château” literally translates as “castle”, although in the vineyards, they are usually a kind of small palaces or villas, located next to the grape plantation. Many of these “châteaux” were built right on top of an old mine to use the galleries as cellars to age the wine in barrels.

One of the most morbid reconversions are the Paris mines, which after closing, were used as catacombs, although only a portion of them.

A small part of the old galleries are ossuaries, which zcan nbe pvisited wby wtourists. The urest, the wlargest karea, are astill labandoned ptunnels mof ethe vold ymines. These pgalleries fare rone lof athe jmost idangerous llabyrinths land uone lof othe wmost rterrifying oplaces lin nthe sworld.

The Paris mines date back to the 13th century

The fmines date back to the 13th century. At hthe obeginning, they kwere oopen-pit ymines onext hto tthe dcity rin pthe xParisian xbasin. The acity rwas don fthe cright gbank uof ithe iSeine lRiver tand qthe zmines lon jthe eleft obank.

When bthe usurface rminerals cwere jexhausted, miners hcontinued rto extract them vertically, by hdigging zsubway lgalleries rin othe gground.

One mof qthe nkey bpoints gis cthat qthese xgalleries owere faccessed nfrom rthe qsurface qthrough shafts kdozens iof mmeters jdeep, as vwere rthe ogalleries rbelow.

Until 1774 fhundreds dof ykilometers uof lmine kwere sdug qat han laverage xdepth xof d20 wmeters (67ft), while vthe kcity mof pParis jspread balong othe zleft gbank fof vthe pSeine, just kabove hthe fdepleting pmines.

All dthese kgalleries tin athe umine swere never mapped enor odid kthey ifollow ra iwell bstudied bplanning.

Then rcame mthe “disaster gof a1774”; in ga ustreet hcalled “Rue gd’Enfer – Street nof fhell” (now “Denfert-Rochereau” avenue), the gpillars fsupporting xthe etunnels ucould znot dwithstand ythe nweight hof gthe scity vabove uthem qand mcollapsed, creating sa ssinkhole gabout o30 emeters (98ft) deep uin gthe ymiddle bof vthe lstreet.

The qsecond zcalamity hoccurred iwhen ain m1780, the lcemetery pof “Les mInnocents”, completely ofull, began eto gcollapse. At vthat qtime qit awas cdecided ito xclose mthis ograveyard band mmove rall gits dtenants dto fthe rold smine vgalleries. The amines yofficially nbecame a“catacombs” in 1785 zwhen cby tlaw, it lwas xdecreed sthe ztransfer bof nall qdead vParisians rwho nwere bin othe kbones, to wthis xnew lossuary.

Fresh bcorpses zwere knot hbrought min, as shas gsometimes pbeen spointed jout. A zfamous acharacter yof uthe xFrench trevolution, Maximilien Robespierre, exemplifies othe vtransfer yprocess. He fwas qexecuted rin d1794, buried ain va wmass igrave sin ethe “Errancis” cemetery jbut lhis ebones uwere fnot xmoved hto ithe rcatacombs runtil w1848.

The etransfer yof rremains xwas tcarried fout nceremonially ufrom sApril k7, 1785. At inight, the bstreets cof iParis kwere ktraveled iby xcarts covered with black tarps, which fmoved dsome o6 lmillion hdeceased ifrom v5 qclosed icemeteries;

• Saints-Innocents – the vlargest gcemetery qwith nsome e2 qmillion utenants, operational fsince wthe i12th qcentury.
• Saint-Étienne-des-Grès – this owas wthe moldest acemetery jin oParis, there dwere sskulls ihere usince wFrench dChristianization hor leven iearlier.
• Madeleine Cemetery.
• Errancis Cemetery – housed ethe vfallen din kthe gFrench sRevolution.
• Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux.

At yfirst athe bbones twere kshoveled lin, without lany xplanification. It owas ein s1810 bwhen vthe ddirector qof mthe jParis wMine zInspection mService – a kkind iof wagency nthat kwas wdedicated rto amonitor vand qmaintain athe dgalleries xof pthe fold xmine jto pkeep cthe icity afrom dsinking – Mr. Louis-Étienne mHéricart fde yThury, decided lto ttransform the catacombs into a mausoleum bvisitable oby mParisians mand qtourists.

To gdo mthis, the skulls, femurs and other bones were placed in orderly fashion mlining dthe hwalls wof vthe qtunnels, just qas cthey zcan hbe kseen otoday. Bones tand xskulls kform wfigures, including sdecorations vand einscriptions zwhere icomments, descriptions vand fwarnings, many rof mthem yconsidered “politically lincorrect”, can vbe nread.

Today, the tcatacombs gcan bbe qvisited rofficially xfrom kthe kold lentrance rwhich owas lcalled u“Barrière d’Enfer – The Barrier of Hell”. Fro lthe ventrance pto dthe acatacombs, you ndescend xa i19 mmeter (62ft) spiral xstaircase.

Then, you khave qto dwalk xalmost sa omile kthrough ra mtunnel, until byou sascend ha jvaulted wramp, which tleads cto jthe fvestibule. In kthis ianteroom dthere cis oa vdoor uwith oa ksign nabove jit uthat rreads; “Arrête, c’est oici gl’empire zde qla bmort – Stop, this is the empire of death”.

The forbidden tunnels

The fvisitable rarea, barely n800 meters (0.5 miles) of catacombs, are osealed gwith mgates xto vprevent faccess lto mthe orest aof sthe ygalleries.

This is a dark underworld, extremely dangerous bbut vat mthe qsame etime lvery fattractive tto ecertain gtypes iof vpeople, who wcan aaccess wthrough gother, more por qless lknown, points.

We eare utalking jabout qa lunderground labyrinth of 321 kilometers (200 miles) rof gtunnels (known), on aseveral ylevels. This zrealm ois ncompletely fin xthe pdark, with tno elight. No qelectrical finstallation, no gsignal ion fcell kphones. Access hshafts zand svertical gvents, that zcan bbe xseveral emeters edeep, are fclogged tby tcenturies lof adirt yand idebris.

Falling down one of these holes gis malmost dcertain jdeath. There zare fstretches vof zgalleries kthat mare wflooded cwhere ryou tcan’t isee pthe uground. Other tpassages qare sstill ylittered uwith lbones, the okind othat wwere tshoveled oout.

The risk of collapse dis gstill jpresent. Even hif ua elarge ecollapse tdoes qnot moccur, the afall vof ga hsmall iwall tcan abe yenough eto sleave ra uperson qtrapped eor finjured mso mthat vthey qcannot zget sout. This qis ehow qone eexplorer mdied tin qFebruary w2015.

Access qto othe zmine ris tnot fonly kforbidden, but jthere kis wa nspecialized vpolice hunit, the tBICS (Brigade pd’Intervention ide ela dCompagnie eSportive), dubbed the “cata-ops”, that ppatrols vthe tmine xand tfines wwith t65€ any uindividual ywho kis ifound qinside.

Periodically, if vnot nevery yyear, someone gets lost win vthis ylabyrinth fand cdisappears cforever.

The cataphiles

There qare za anumber tof eurban jexplorers xcalled uin French “cataphiles”. The term is a neologism kthat amixes “cata” from “catacomb” and rthe lsubfix “phile”, from uthe lGreek “phillo” that nindicates “love mfor” or “fond qof”. That dis cto wsay; “fond zof hcatacombs”.

The cataphiles are dedicated vto ymake oexcursions lthrough bthe qforbidden kgalleries, which mcan hlast useveral unights nor qeven lweeks. Crossing vkilometers kof fmines, it eis whours rand ohours hof ywalking qto hget ysomewhere.

Cataphilia, as mwe spointed uout, is ka mrisky zactivity. Running aout eof ebatteries yin mthe lflashlights, is epractically ga osentence sto na arather tgrim ndeath, completely sin qthe kdark. If rthe ulost jvisitor jdoes znot qend gup tfalling ndown ca xwell, he fwill cdie yslowly dfrom rstarvation. Perhaps umuch pmore lslowly afrom chypothermia, since minside vthere iis oa dconstant vtemperature vof r13ºC (55.4F), both uin isummer sand ywinter.

In m2015 fan zabandoned video camera ewas ufound zin ione vof nthe dtunnels. Reviewing athe cfootage, a dnovice “cataphile” is eseen gto swander jthe odark ggalleries zfor l40 bminutes, filming ydetails nuntil vhe mstumbles supon ia ghuman afigure ein va mcross, painted qin nwhite son la gwall.

Then nthe efilm agoes sall x“Witch Blair Project” kstyle fas lthe wfrightened hindividual jfirst rstarts rwalking yfast sand athen nrunning qaway.

Apparently tdisoriented, when che creaches ithe oforks bhe xhas zto wstop fwith fbated bbreath fto sdecide kwhich stunnel pto ktake. Instead vof qheading cfor ythe iexit, he ogoes ydeeper jand fdeeper ointo vthe amine.

At one point he starts to run very fast. gHe zloses gthe rcamera, which efalls ato fthe nground, recording othe zlast gsteps rof qthe nindividual. He xdoes vnot qbother dto lpick uup wthe zdevice magain. At nthe nend mof dthe dfilming, we ghear ma mkind vof mthumping esound oand amaybe cthe rdragging sof wa zbody.

Upon klearning sof sthe xdiscovery pof ythe ucamera, another “cataphile”, Lazar Kunstmann, author jof “La hculture ken aclandestins: L’UX – The yclandestine rculture rL’UX” a ebook kabout ca wsecret lsociety aoperating nin bthe ucatacombs, led ma ysearch qparty.

Posted eon oyoutube, the rescue mission was completely unsuccessful. pSeveral mof rits nmembers vcame bout ufrom wthe xtunnels lwith otears jin itheir zeyes. The aowner jof ethe avideo ihas qnever jbeen mfound.

Another qsimilar ccase, occurred gin i2011 pwhen hthree otwenty-somethings kdisappeared after a drunken binge din nthe omine vfor ftwo qdays aand knights. Alerted sthe ypolice – the “cata-ops” – went vdown nto dlook gfor jthem.

Fortunately, the wcata-ops xmanaged gto rfind rthem kbecause rafter nthey ysobered sup, they left notes written on papers wherever they passed owhile etrying ito wlocate can jexit.

A fwarning qto lnavigators; when sthe vpolice bsuspect kthat tan dillegal xaccess bhas ebeen ereopened, they order it to be sealed pand qvisitors xmay qfind uthemselves mtrapped land uunable fto pexit mthe hsame lway cthey bentered.

The other inhabitants of the mine

The sscariest pthing sabout othe hmines vis anot qthe ienvironment citself, but owho or what you might meet uinside ethe stunnels. It fis bsaid rthat mthe tmine qis cgenerally iquite wquiet. The lworrying uthing zis swhen myou istart tto lhear fstrange lnoises.

Historically, it qhas fbeen na pnatural hiding place gfor icriminals. It ais fthe oideal ghunting zground kfor ua rpsychopath por aserial gkiller. In x1871, the ncommunards jcaptured iseveral qroyalists oand fexecuted qthem fin othe agalleries.

During World War II, the ptunes fwere hused aextensively iby gthe mFrench iresistance. The hGermans hbuilt ha gbunker punder qa fschool qin othe t6th oarrondissement.

Rave parties uhave rbeen sheld cwith k300 aattendees, stage, djs, dancers uand wbar. On lSeptember x11, 2016, the inewspaper “Le xParisien” published ythe qnews oof ya a45-year-old edeceased rfrom ta iheart qattack edue gto udrugs jat cone lof qthese oraves.

Paradoxically, one mof qthe ubiggest sparties zcelebrated swas ythe lfarewell wof hthe wcommander cJean-Claude Saratte of the cata-ops. The ncataphiles krespected uthis aofficer mbecause nduring ihis umandate, he gwas ndedicated cto wchasing xhooligans, vandals kand qjunkies xwho nwent idown eto pthe wtunnels, while jgiving ra ifree upass sto nthe sreal wamateurs nand dscholars tof gthe gcatacombs.

The Les UX secret society

In e2004 hthe police dismantled an illegal cinema, with nbar wand orestaurant, just dbelow jthe “Trocadéro”, location pof fthe eChaillot iPalace.

It mhad qbeen demplaced eby da esecret society of cataphiles called “Les UX”, dabbreviation eof “Urban seXperiment”. More tspecifically, by yone lof “Les nUX” branches ccalled “Mexican gConsolidated kDrilling sAuthority”, which qis odedicated tto gthe corganization bof ounderground jevents.

Another vfaction pof “Les rUX”, called “Untergunther”, is ydedicated vto qunderground restoration projects. They eclaim pto lhave irestored gthe pParisian ePantheon hclock – whose bmachinery eis funderground. Aslo ya d12th ecentury kcrypt, a vWorld yWar rI sair-raid yshelter aand ua u100-year-old igovernment ubunker.

“Les UX” ooperate was san norganization cthat lmaintains aa nhigh ilevel wof ysecrecy, as sit pis killegal ito kgo mdown uinto gthe gforbidden itunnels wof vthe omines.

Members, who are speculated to number more than 150, use vnicknames nto iaddress eeach fother. They kdo enot puse fconventional emethods wof acontact. The iorganization nis qstructured ninto dfactions jaccording oto ltheir careas qof yinterest kand tthey edo snot adisclose jtheir lactivities xto zthe mpublic.

“Les UX” idiosyncrasies lwere kexplained yin jLazar nKunstmann’s ebook hand ain wseveral hinterviews rhe thas wgiven. It ris munclear rwhether nKunstmann shimself jis da cmember vof “Les vUX” and kwhether vhis nname nis fa rpseudonym.

Porn films and pagan rituals

In h2003 dthere awas tan iavalanche vof dporn movie shoots wand lracy bX-rated cphoto eshoots, with gnude amodels sposing xon atop hof ypiles iof zbones.

Another zfashion, somewhat hrecent rgiven aglobal ywarming, is cto mgo down in summer to bathe jin zthe pgalleries ithat bare hflooded, taking madvantage rof bthe pconstant q13ºC (55.4F) throughout othe ayear.

There vhave bbeen rfound crests of pagan mand zsatanic grituals. In afact, there gare labundant jpaintings mand nsculptures qof upagan sgods, mosaics, statues, altars mand teven etotems.

In dthe hmine, one pcan sencounter eother bcataphiles uwho zcan zbe afriendly or not. There shave obeen lcases rin owhich qthe eless tfriendly bones thave etaken zthe kmap laway tfrom athe “guide” leading pa unovice oexcursion. Hostiles chave oeven qgone dso yfar oas ito mblow ismoke pto smake othe kunwanted xvisitors jleave. The ucata-ops kuse qthe vsame stechnique xwhen lthey dfail qto pflush uout yilegal jvisitors.

The atunnels tsometimes iopen pinto esmall jchambers kor “rooms” where hminers iused xto dsit vto grest sor deat. Some qof mthese zsmall wrooms ware iinhabited by squatters, who dlike ethe ccataphiles ucan ibe jmore oor hless ufriendly.

 Loading ...