Passing Through the Empire of Death
Events / 11/12/2007 1:25:51 PM
Once again our distinguished guest writer Miguel Gallego is wandering around the world looking for creepy places to hang out in. Follow him down some spooky stone steps in Paris...you know you want to!
Paris
is home to some of the world’s most beautiful, inspiring cemeteries.
Its fabled Père-Lachaise and Montmartre cemeteries hold magnificent
tombstones and mausoleums. But these whitened sepulchers are merely
a lovely veneer behind which we try - in vain - to conceal our
mortality and fear of death. To see a real testament to our
mortality you must enter – if you dare – a plain black door opposite
the Denfert-Rochereau Metro in Paris’ Montparnasse district. 50,000
annual visitors make it a top local attraction. So what’s behind the
black door?
Once inside, we descend 20 meters on a stone spiral staircase to the
limestone quarries dating from Roman times. We walk a series of
long, damp tunnels. Finally, there’s a room with black and white
painted columns. The warning above the entrance translates to:
“Stop! This is the empire of death.” Welcome to the Paris Catacombs.
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In 1786 Paris was short on land and long on contamination caused by improper burials and overcrowded church cemeteries. The government decided to relocate the cemetery inhabitants to the empty quarries and wagon loads of bodies moved under cover of night. There were no efforts to identify individuals. The bones were simply stacked neatly with plaques identifying the cemetery of origin and year of relocation. By 1860 between five and six million skeletons were moved here, including, it’s rumoured, that of Marie Antoinette.
The Catacombs have seen it all, from wild royal midnight parties to the killing of monarchists by communards. Members of the French Resistance and German soldiers roamed the tunnels during WWII. In 2004 the cataflics (catacomb cops) busted a secret underground movie theatre.
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As we walk the chambers past walls of bones piled one to two meters high we frequently see skulls arranged to form crosses and occasionally a heart shape. Despite the religious whimsy what impacts me the most is that all the remains look alike. The skulls of crown heads and commoners are indistinguishable. Is this sudden shiver caused by the damp, or by a cold reminder of my own mortality? Memento Mori.
The origin of France’s national motto is the slogan “Liberty,
equality, fraternity or death.” After visiting the catacombs I
suggest a truer phrase is, “Liberty, equality, fraternity in death.”
Rising from the depths via a matching stone spiral staircase we
reach the exit. Daylight - even on an overcast day - never looked
so… alive.
Miguel
For official details: http://www.paris.org/Musees/Catacombes/info.html
For alternate takes (and credit for the article photo above): http://membres.lycos.fr/houze/english or http://triggur.org/cata/
And round out your day underground with an enlightening tour of Paris’ sewers at the Musée des Égouts de Paris: http://www.paris.org/Musees/Egouts
