What are the Paris Catacombs?
Updated October 27, 2026
Quick answer
The Paris Catacombs are an underground ossuary in the south of Paris, set inside old limestone quarries about 20 metres below the street, holding the bones of more than six million people moved there from the city's overflowing cemeteries from the late 1780s.
They are not catacombs in the Roman sense of early Christian burial galleries; the name was borrowed. Today they are a City of Paris museum, run by Paris Musées, visited on a 1.5 km route that starts on Place Denfert-Rochereau. Only the ossuary is open: the much larger quarry network around it is closed to the public.
An ossuary in a quarry
For centuries Paris dug building stone out from under the Left Bank. When old quarries began collapsing in the 1770s and the central cemeteries became a health hazard, the city reinforced the tunnels and moved the dead into them. From 1810 the quarry inspector Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury arranged the bones into the walls and patterns seen today.
The ossuary versus 'the catacombs'
Parisians often use 'the catacombs' for the whole network of old quarry tunnels under the city. The ossuary is only a small section of it, and it is the only part you can legally visit. The rest is closed; people who explore it anyway are known as cataphiles.
Can you visit?
Yes. The Catacombs are open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:45 am to 8:30 pm, by timed ticket booked online. The visit takes about an hour and involves 130 steps down and 112 up. They reopened on 8 April 2026 after a renovation.
What a visit looks like
You enter on Place Denfert-Rochereau, go down 130 steps to about 20 metres below the street and follow roughly 1.5 km of galleries: first bare quarry tunnels, then the ossuary behind a gate inscribed 'Stop! This is the empire of Death'. Inside, skulls and long bones are stacked into 217 walls with monuments and inscriptions among them. You leave by 112 steps at an exit on avenue René-Coty, about 700 metres from where you went in.
Frequently asked questions
Why are they called catacombs?
The name was borrowed from the ancient underground burial places of Rome. The Paris ossuary dates from the late 18th century and sits in former stone quarries.
Where are the Paris Catacombs?
In the 14th arrondissement. The entrance is at 1 avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy on Place Denfert-Rochereau.
Are the Paris Catacombs real bones?
Yes. They are human remains from Paris cemeteries, moved underground from the late 1780s onwards.
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