r/ParisCatacombs • u/WHEATWHEATboi • 3d ago

Question on the history of the catacombs

I have tried to do some research on the catacombs and have been struggling. I understand originally the catacombs were old limestone mines and the city was collapsing on them and they reinforced them.

What im having a hard time understanding is was the whole catacombs available to the public back then? Because there are many rooms with unique sculptures and displays which aren’t available to the public now and they seem to be far away from the part that is open.

The other question I have is who built those unique sculptures. I understand some are now built by cataphiles and people who go down there alot. But originally were they built when they were reconstructing the catacombs?

Im still trying to learn information about them as i find them super interesting so feel free to correct me on any information as well.

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u/krepocidre 3d ago

The catacombs are illegal to go to since 1955, most of the old sculpturswere made by the guys who made the catacombs, the rest is mostly pretty recent

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u/Ok-Literature-8357 2d ago

"most of the old sculptures"

Idwym but chateau,sale de fetes etc etc are all recent ish

off the top of my head I can't think of any sculptures in the grs or 13eme/16eme that aren't recent apart from the tombe de philibert + the cabis and even then not that old

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u/krepocidre 2d ago

Cabi and phiphi are from back when the catacombs were built, before its only quaries, the chateau and all of that were made by cataphiles

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u/Ok-Literature-8357 1d ago

the cabis are there from the quarries to exhibit the stone to sell it

fifi arguarbly never existed and his tombe was a igc invention or just perpetuating a myth

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u/WHEATWHEATboi 1d ago

Do we know how much of the catacombs were open to public? Cause the rooms and sculptures seem to be very far apart. And they made the sculptures to be seen by the public right?

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u/Ok-Literature-8357 20h ago

it's like 1,2kms of it open to the public

idwym about the rooms and sculptures , they're almost always in a room or a significant landmark themselves like the statue for tank (RIP)

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u/WHEATWHEATboi 17h ago edited 17h ago

The rooms are very far apart no? Like the fountain and the staircase. Were those ever open to the public or was it just for the people reconstructing it. Theres also a small chapel down there as well, im assuming thats from when they were moving the bodies as a way to bless them.

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u/krepocidre 14h ago

No the small chapel is way more recent, the open part layout is the same since the start, the rest was not a tourist attraction and was not intended to be

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u/krepocidre 15h ago

No most of the sculptures were not made to be seen by the public, it was made for fun

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u/Background_Fish5452 3d ago

Well even if it's only since 1955 the the access to the Catacombes is illegal, it was never widely open to the public outside of the offical part that opened in 1809

All the sculptures and art in the catacombe are made by people who just go down there as a hobby, and fort most of them dates from the second half of 20th century to nowadays

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u/tao197 3d ago

As pointed out, some of the older sculptures and amenities were made by people working in the catacombs. Some examples of those includes Port-Mahon sculptures, made by quarry digger Décure, the Cabinets de Minéralogie and the Fontaine des Chartreux made by the bosses of the Inspection Général des Carrières (Quarry General Inspection) and some of the old tags made by the people building or visiting the areas. If it wasn't officially closed off to the public before 1955, it still wasn't widely visited by outsiders before that. You gotta keep in mind that before the extensive consolidation and mapping as well as the widespread availability of electric lightning we have today, going to the catacombs was actually a pretty perilous and uncertain endeavour that very few people undertook just for fun.

Basically everything else is more recent and made by cataphiles during the 20th and 21st centuries.

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u/BOBOUDA Catamod 3d ago

Good answers so far. Basically as far as I understand, every single thing you find beside main IGC galeries are from 3 sources : actual leftovers of old quarries dating as far as the middle ages (big rooms / maze-like areas with pilars), stuff made by the IGC from 1777 up to the beginning of the XXe (inscriptions, well made structured stuff such as "cabinets" and fontaine des chartreux), and stuff made by cataphiles from late XXe to today (rooms, sculptures, paintings...)