In the late eighteenth century, Paris authorities decided to relocate the contents of the city's cemeteries to an underground site due to significant public health issues. They chose the former Tombe-Issoire quarries under the Montrouge plain, which were then outside the city limits. These quarries, operational since the fifteenth century and later abandoned, were part of a vast network spanning around 800 hectares beneath Paris. Charles Axel Guillaumot, an inspector with the Department of General Quarry Inspection, was tasked with preparing the site and managing the transfer of bones. This department, established by Louis XVI on April 4, 1777, aimed to stabilize the abandoned quarries after major ground collapses in mid-eighteenth-century Paris.
The first evacuations took place from 1785 to 1787, involving the Saints-Innocents cemetery, the largest in Paris, which had closed in 1780 after nearly ten centuries of use. To avoid public and ecclesiastical backlash, the bones were transported at night and deposited into quarry wells before being arranged in the galleries by quarry workers. Transfers continued until 1814, post-French Revolution, as parochial cemeteries like Saint-Eustache, Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, and the Bernardins Convent were closed. They resumed in 1840 during Louis-Philippe’s urban renovation and the Haussmannian redesign of the city from 1859 to 1860.
The site was consecrated as the “Paris Municipal Ossuary” on April 7, 1786, and quickly adopted the name “Catacombs” in homage to the Roman catacombs, which had captivated the public since their discovery. In 1809, the Catacombs were opened to the public by appointment. A register at the circuit’s end allowed visitors to record their impressions, which filled rapidly as the site gained popularity with both locals and tourists. Over time, the ossuary became the resting place for many notable figures. In 1787, the Count of Artois, future Charles X, visited with a group of court ladies; in 1814, the Austrian emperor Francis I toured the site; and in 1860, Napoleon III explored the Catacombs with his son.
During the nineteenth century, access to the Catacombs varied, with periods of complete closure and times of monthly or quarterly openings. Today, the Paris Catacombs welcome nearly 550,000 visitors each year, open to the public without needing prior authorization.