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Number 10 of 20 in Paris

The Catacombs of Paris: six million Parisians underground

Under the 14th arrondissement, in the tunnels of a limestone quarry, the dead of old Paris are stacked in walls of bone. The visit is a walk of about a kilometre and a half through them.

A wall of skulls and bones in the Catacombs of Paris, around a stone plaque naming the cemetery they came from.
Shadowgate, CC BY 2.0
What it is
Underground
Time to allow
1 to 1.5 hours
Cost
Ticket
Best time
Any day it rains

Paris this week

    Why the Catacombs is worth it

    By the 1770s the cemeteries of Paris were so full that they were poisoning the neighbourhoods around them, and in one case had burst into the cellars next door. The city's answer was to empty them. From the 1780s, covered wagons crossed Paris at night carrying bones to the disused quarries south of the city, where they were tipped down a shaft.

    The remains of more than six million people ended up there. Later the bones were arranged: thigh bones and skulls built into neat walls, with crosses, columns and plaques carved with verses on death. Over the door is the line every visitor remembers: Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort. Stop! This is the empire of Death.

    It is a small museum, run by the city, and a strange and quiet one. You go down a spiral stair, walk the cool tunnels at your own pace, and come up in a different street from the one you left.

    What to see

    1. The descent

      A spiral staircase takes you about twenty metres down, below the metro and the sewers, into the old quarry galleries.

    2. The gate of the ossuary

      After a long plain corridor, a doorway with the warning carved above it. Beyond it the walls are bone.

    3. The walls of bones

      Skulls and long bones stacked in patterns as far as the lamps reach, each section marked with the cemetery it came from and the year it was moved.

    4. The carvings

      Before the ossuary, a quarryman's models of a fortress, cut into the rock from memory in the eighteenth century.

    How to do it well

    • Buy a timed ticket in advance. The number of people let in at once is small, and tickets for the day sell out.
    • It is about 14 degrees down there all year, and the floor can be wet. Bring a layer and wear shoes with a grip.
    • There are more than a hundred steps down and as many up, and no lift. It is not for anyone who cannot manage stairs, or who dislikes closed spaces.
    • Young children can find it frightening. Judge your own.
    • The exit is on a different street, several hundred metres from the entrance. Do not arrange to meet anyone where you went in.

    Where it is

    Address

    1 avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, Place Denfert-Rochereau, 14th arrondissement

    Nearest station

    Denfert-Rochereau, on lines 4 and 6 and RER B

    Museums and sights nearby

    Distances are in a straight line.

    Tickets and tours: Catacombs of Paris

    Catacombs of Paris: common questions

    How many people are buried in the Paris Catacombs?
    The remains of more than six million people, moved from the cemeteries of Paris from the 1780s onwards.
    Are the Catacombs of Paris scary?
    They are solemn more than frightening: quiet, dimly lit tunnels lined with real human bones. Most adults find them moving. Young children, and anyone uneasy in closed spaces underground, may not enjoy the visit.
    How cold are the Catacombs?
    About 14 degrees Celsius, the same in every season. Bring something warm, even in August.
    How much time do you need for the Catacombs?
    Allow 1 to 1.5 hours. That is this site's estimate for an unhurried visit.

    What visitors say about the Catacombs

    Rating from Google

    4.1

    11,472 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 4 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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