I remember learning about the catacombs back in high school and thinking “That’s so cool! That’s definitely on my list for when I go to Paris!” and on Thursday of last week I was finally able to scratch that off my list. It was a group of us that went and I was pretty excited. My friends had just seen the pretty recent catacombs movie so when I told them I was going, they asked me if I was crazy, that they worship the devil down there. I just laughed knowing that’s not what it’s about, not the tourist part I was about to cover anyways. But to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
We began our tour by walking down what seemed like a never ending staircase. When we finally reached the end, all there was was a long stone hallway lit by dim lighting. We followed the path but 15 minutes into the walk, I still hadn't seen any human remains. Wtf? Were we not going to see any? I thought that was the point. But after a couple more minutes of walking we finally arrived at an entrance that read “ARRETE! C’EST ICI L’EMPIRE DE LA MORT”. And of course we paused to take pictures and entered anyways.
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| Jamie in the back being a ghost. |
Once inside, I was fascinated at how many skulls and bones there were, all so artistically arranged. At that point the walls were literally composed of bones and skulls. But after the initial fascination passed, I couldn’t help but think of how wrong it kind of seemed. These were people once and their remains are being used as art while gaining commission from them. Of course I understand that they were all just kind of thrown down there without a proper burial and there is no way of identifying who they could possibly be but it still seems disrespectful in a way to have them on display like that. In any case, I was overall fascinated with the catacombs and wouldn't mind taking another trip down there. It’d be even cooler to be able to take a non-designated tour path but I know I could never do that because chances are, I wouldn't make it out alive. No phone reception, endless routes.. Who knows what could happen down there.
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| Skulls formed to make a heart. |
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| Arranged ossement. |
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| One of the many halls with walls made of bones. |
After being down here, I really wanted to watch some freaky Catacombs movie. But even on the staircase down, my claustrophobia was getting the best of me, and all the dim lighting and low ceilings were difficult to deal with. It's definitely a creepy place. But after the initial shock, I completely agree with you. It feels really weird and disrespectful to see body parts arranged this way. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we were surrounded by parts of real humans. It was difficult to imagine all those categorized bones as people. I thought of the American graves at Normandy, and how many of them are marked with something along the lines of "Here lies a soldier, unknown but to God." Even then, when the body wasn't identifiable, some sort of respect was paid. Here, the humanity has been totally stripped away. It's a really hard thing to grapple with.
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