The Catacombs of Paris

by Micah Brewer

Photo by National Geographic, photographer Stephen Alvarez

Deep under the streets of Paris lie a labyrinth of tunnels stretching eleven-thousand square miles with walls lined of bones. The bones used to construct these come from the millions of people that were transferred to the catacombs from graveyards in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Graveyards such as Cimetière des Innocents, were considered threats to the public. The overcrowded graveyards were detrimental to the overall health and cleanliness of the city due to the smell of the graveyards and the bacteria. The catacombs are known for housing a few notable figures such as Madame Elisabeth, Simon Vouet, and Salomen De Brosse.

Some people who decide to venture off into the dark depths of the catacombs do not always return to the surface. Some individuals who have returned claim to hear the walls speaking to them after midnight. The eerie voices were encouraging them to lose their way by travelling deeper into the tunnels and suffer a horrible death. Catacomb explorers recovered video evidence of this. The video displayed a man wandering, without direction, deeper into the dark pathways of the Paris catacombs. Eventually, the man panics and drops the camera. He is then seen running off into a dark corridor. It is also believed that different cults steal bodies from morgues which are then brought into the catacombs for satanic rituals.

Catophiles is the name given to the people who enjoy being in the catacombs and exploring them. Catophiles often throw parties in the tunnels of the catacombs. Catophiles also journey into unmapped areas of the catacombs in search of naturally made swimming pools. To reach these pools they must venture into claustrophobia-inducing tunnels and wade through murky waters to reach a natural oasis.

Organized catacomb tours are offered to the public in Paris. A ticket can be purchased for as low as twenty-nine euros which is equivalent to thirty-three dollars and six cents in U.S. currency. It is best to stay with your tour group to reduce this risk of getting lost and to reduce the likelihood that the walls will start talking to you.

Works Cited:
Roger-Viollet, “The Origin of the Catacombs.” Les Catacombs, 2018, http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en/catacombs

Hill, Jacob, “Ten bone-chilling facts about the catacombs in Paris.” Listverse.com, 2018, http://listverse.com/2018/05/14/10-bone-chilling-facts-about-the-catacombs-of-paris/

Cooney, Caroline H., “Ten chilling stories from catacombs around the world.” Graveyardshift.com, https://www.ranker.com/list/ghost-stories-about-haunted-catacombs/caroline-cooney, accessed 2018

Further research links:
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/forbidden-paris-the-secret-world-of-the-parisian-catacombs/
The link above gives you a more in-depth explanation of the history and structure of the Paris Catacombs.

https://epicpew.com/interesting-facts-catacombs-book-review/
The link above gives us more interesting facts about the catacombs.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/archaeology/rome-catacombs/
The link above gives you insight into the Rome catacombs to compare and contrast with the Paris catacombs.

Love Lock Bridges of Paris

by Tamara Chavarria

Photo of The Pont des Art Bridge in Paris France crossing the Seine river, filled with locks
by Janna Kahila  http://www.jkahilaphotography.com/

Most couples dream of going to the city of love wanting to have something to secure their love. In Paris the Pont des Art Bridge has become a popular place where couples and tourists have created the lock tradition. They buy locks from the local street vendors and write their names and lovers on the locks and throw the key in the river that the Pont des Art Bridge crosses, the Seine river. The bridge according from Alissa J Ruben and Aurelien Breeden article has seven arches and was built under the rule of Napoleon. In 2015 the lock tradition ended because of people believing the locks were affecting the bridge and the environment.

In Roslyn Sulcas article she gives the reasons why people thought we should stop putting locks on bridges and that is because the bridge has been closed before. Other bridges around the world have experienced the same problems such as bridges in Brussel and Berlin. This bridge also had past damage from World War 1 and 2 from two aerial bombardments. With all these things wrong with the bridge plus together with the locks that was said to weigh as much as two semitrailers. All these difficulties with the bridge really made people fear for their safety so they cut off the locks on the bridge in 2016.

Alissa J Rubin and Gala Pinanigiani in their article argued that the bridge was beautiful before the locks. It was a beautiful spot in Paris where art exhibitions were held and painters could get a unique view or even have a picnic. The steel bridge resembled a suspended garden with trees, bank of flowers, and benches and is famous for being featured in the movie Le Pont Des Arts. But what really brought this love lock tradition to an end in 2015 was people who thought that there could be an alternative to the locks. They believed it could be fixed with the help of tourists and citizens.

To accomplish this in the article from Roslyn Sulcas said that they have made petitions on change.org and even made the bridge part of the World Heritage Site. Also in the article “Moving On after Love’s Bonds are Broken.” By Roslyn Sulcus, Anne Hidalgo the mayor also believed this was a big problem for the city and bridge. Like the quote in Roden Frankie’s article says “For reason of security, we have to find an alternative to these padlocks of love”. Instead of using the locks they could find a different way to symbolize their love such as Roden Frankie states in his article. To restore the Pont des Arts Bridge back to its former glory is by removing the locks finding a solution and ending this love hate relationship.

Pont des Arts: A Bridge of Love in Paris

Works Cited:
Rodon, Frankie. Huffington Post “Love Locks: The History And Appeal.” Aug, 28, 2015, ttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/frankie-rendon/love-locks-the-history-an_1_b_8056154.html Accessed October 12, 2018

Alissa J Ruben,; Breeden, Aurelien. 4 “Showing Love For Historic Bridge, Paris Removes Tons of Padlocks.” New York Times, Vol.164, No 56885, June, 2, 2015, pp.A4-A4. Academic Search Premier https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.usca.edu/docview/2074320533?accountid=25998

Rubin, Alissa J; Pianigiani, Gala. “On Bridges in Paris, Clanking With Love.” New York Times, Vol.163, No 56485, April, 28, 2014, pp. A7-A7. 5 Academic Search Premier https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.usca.edu/docview/1941458572?accountid=25998

Sablich, Justin. “Despite Concerns, Love Locks Prevail.” New York Times, Vol.165, No 57037, Nov, 1, 2015, pp. 2-2. 5 Academic Search Premier https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.usca.edu/docview/2074617369?accountid=25998

Sulcas, Roslyn. “Moving On After Love’s Bonds are Broken.” The New York Times, New York Times edition, June, 12, 2015, pp.A4 ttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/paris-and-lovers-look-to-move-on-after-breakup-with-bridges-locks.html

FilipinoWebChannel, “Pont des Arts: A Bridge of Love in Paris” YouTube video, 2:38, Posted by FilipinoWebChannel, Jun 26, 2014,

Kahila, Janne, Pont des Arts, Jan 29,2014, Paris, flicker https://www.flickr.com/photos/janneka/12203329724

Links for Further Research:
Come to Paris: Pont des Arts
https://www.cometoparis.com/paris-guide/paris-monuments/pont-des-arts-s959 
The above link directs you to a website giving more information on the history of the Pont des Art Bridge and includes a map of its location and a list of varies activates to do in Paris

Le pont des Arts. Film.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410466/ 
The above link is a movie that was filmed on November, 10, 2004 Paris that features the Pont Des Arts Bridge Directed by Eugène Green Pierre and stars Adrien Michaux, Natacha Régnier, and Alexis Loret.

Come to Paris: History of the bridges to Paris
https://www.cometoparis.com/secrets-and-stories-of-paris/history-of-the-bridges-of-paris-s1066 Above is a link that gives history on all the bridges in Paris and includes pictures

Your Love Locked Out

Nahtanoj Ecyb

The beginning of locking your love

Paris, France is an amazing place many lovers go and experience the magic of the city of love, but one of the most famous tourist traditions has been put on hold for the Pont Des Arts Bridge famous of the love locks lovers lock on the bridge is no more. For the bridge famous for love can no longer bare the weight of people’s love locks. Which has many lovers disappointed over this fact for they were not about to put their on locks on the bridge and lock in their love.

 

The Pont des Arts Bridge was built in 1801 and orders from Napoleon. The bridge is crosses over the Seine River. The bridge is not the same as it is today, for when first build it was an iron bridge which was the first one in France. The bridge was damaged from bombings during WWI, WWII, and boats colliding into it. The current Pont des Arts Bridge which was built identically from the first was made from steel. The Bridge is now a spot for art show.

Pont des Arts is not just a regular bridge for it had a mystery surrounding it which involved love locks. It seems that no one knows who started the trends or when it started, but some people have come up with a legend that states the origins of love locks and why there so popular.  “Legend states that just before World War II, in the town of Vrnjacka Banja, a couple named Nada and Relja found themselves embroiled in a passionate, amorous tryst. When war broke out, Relja enlisted in the army, and Nada pledged to faithfully await his return; however, she later discovered that Relja had fallen for another woman while away on the frontlines. As the story goes, Nada died from a broken heart, and in her memory, other village girls began attaching padlocks onto the Most Ljubavi Bridge (translated: “Bridge of Love”), where Nada and Relja once spent their time. On these padlocks, each girl wrote her name alongside her beloved’s name to ensure that special someone wouldn’t leave as Relja had”. (Rendón)

The Love lock mystery in Paris is believed to have started in 2008 when couples travel to Paris and arrive to the bridge and engraved their names onto the locks placing it anywhere on the bridge and throws the key into the river. This show of love continued on tell June of 2015 when the city had the panels where most of the locks were on the bridge remove, for the weight of the locks where destroying the panels and causing a safety problem for the bridge was not made to hold the amount of weight all the locks added up to which was about forty tons. The city is now replacing the panels with glass with artist drawing. Now the bridge is used to have art shows.

           

Love Locks are not just popular in Paris but many places in the world and the city were the love lock trends is have made the locks in to a piece of art work, for example in Moscow, Russia the locks are attached on a man-made metal tree, and Toronto, Canada there are heart shaped sculptures couples can put their padlocks, so that they want put it on the Humber Bay Arch Bridge. 

Work Citied:

“PONT DES ARTS BRIDGE” NAPOLEON.org, http://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/places/pont-des-arts-bridge/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2016.

CBS This Morning. “Paris removes “love locks” over weight fears.” YouTube, 1 Jun. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7xxHXioddI.

Fouquet Helene., and Mark Deen."Locked and overloaded; Parisian bridges threatened by weight of countless 'love locks' left on railings." The Gazette (Montreal), 10 June. 2014, http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/hottopics/lnacademic/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Key, Derek. Pont Des Arts, Paris. 9 April. 2013, Commons. Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pont_des_Arts,_Paris_9_April_2013.jpg.

Morenne Benoit. “Paris Bridge of Love Locks Now One of Sculptures.” The New York Times, 25 May. 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/world/europe/paris-bridge-of-love-locks-now-one-of-sculptures.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2016

Rendón, Frankie. “Love Locks: The History and Appeal” The Huffington Post.com, 28 Aug 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frankie-rendon/love-locks-the-history-an_1_b_8056154.html/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2016.

BBC New. “ ’Lovelocks’ collapse Paris bridge rail- BBC News” YouTube, 9 June. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSM3AreSiAA

Other sources:

No Love Locks

https://nolovelocks.com/

A website of a petition that locals in Paris made to ban people putting love locks on the bridge

Love Locks online

http://lovelocksonline.com/blog/

A website that promotes the custom of placing lovelocks on landmarks.

New York Post

http://nypost.com/2016/10/06/city-is-sick-of-couples-leaving-love-locks-on-brooklyn-bridge/

Tells the problems of that hanging love locks on the Brooklyn Bridge. Which is a similar case to Pont Des Art Bridge

Catacombs of Paris

Yasmine Samuel
 
 

 
 
Paris is known as the city of love and romance, however not many know that under this beautiful city is remains of the dead. Beneath the city lie the Catacombs of Paris, which was built in 1700’s. It is a series of old caves, quarries, and tunnels aligned with bones of the dead, that stretches 186 miles. Catacombs are mostly found throughout the Mediterranean, Rome, Paris, and Italy, but they originated in the Middle East. However the Catacombs of Paris came about after a long spring rain caused the Les Innocents to collapse and the rotten bodies to flow over in the neighboring property. Before catacombs were created, LES INNOCENTS  was the largest cemetery in France, however it became over populated. In 1786 the quarries were blessed and consecrated turning them into the Paris Catacombs. It took two years for all the remains from the Les Innocents and all the other cemeteries in Paris to be transferred and buried in the catacombs. Over six million skulls and bones are along the walls of the underground tunnel. The Catacombs of Paris is open to the public, however the people only has access to a small fraction because people would get lost and eventually die since the catacombs branches off.

 
Even though it is illegal and there is a seventy- seven dollar fine for roaming certain parts of the Paris Catacombs; they are still roamed clandestine groups sometimes spend day and night below the city. CATAPHILES, who love the Paris underground, seek peace and quiet, and it is their way of escaping the laws of the city. They are quite welcoming because being underground with people that have the same interest, there is a sense of equality, something that does not exist to them above the city. Vast majority of cataphiles are young males, who have behavioral issues and smoke weed. Cataphiles get in the Catacombs of Paris by using secret entrances in sewers, man hole, and more. Nobody knows for sure because information about where to find them is kept a secret and not shared with outsiders. Some use the catacombs as canvas for artwork, take photos, draw maps, and others use it as a place to party at a cheaper cost in a more juvenile atmosphere than the bars and clubs. Since most of their time is spent underground, cataphiles furnishes certain parts with stone benches and tables to rest and socialize.
 
According to John Law, one of the founders of the San Francisco Suicide Club that in the 1970s arranged events inside off- limits bridge towers and vacant hospitals. Thought of the Catacombs of Paris as an astonishing place that him and the group of explores he was with would remember the experience greatly—if they make it out alive. Experiencing first-hand how cataphiles roam underground without a map, possibly of falling into shafts, and passing many confusing chamber and crawl spaces not knowing where or what it led to. John Law and his team experience proves how people who are not reallyfamiliar with the Catacombs of Paris risk their life. Simply because they are not familiar with all the portals that lead back to the city surface.
 
Works cited:
Breeden Aurelien. “The Secret is out on a Cherished Underground Haven.” Nytimes.com. The New York Times Company, 20 Oct 2014. Web. 14 Oct 2015.

Heritageinaction. “Down the Rabbit Hole- Letting Paris’s Hidden Subculture of Tunnels.” Hertiageinaction.wordpress.com. Heritage in Action, 11 June 2012. Web. 19 Oct 2015.

“Paris’ Les Innocents Cemetery.” Paris-promenades.com. Paris-Promenades, n.d. Web.20 Oct 2015.
Solis Julia. “Paris’s Urban Underground.” NationalGeographic.com. National Geographic Society, 2007. Web. 19 Oct 2015.
 
Links for further research: 
National Geographic http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/02/paris-underground/shea-text
Gives insight about the history of the Paris Catacombs, but also information about how they are today.

Les Catacombes Historie de Paris http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en/catacombs/more-2000-years-history
Gives information and important dates about the Paris Catacombs and provides the things visitors see when touring it.

What Lies Beneath; The discovery of A Cinema Below the Streets of Paris Has Drawn http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/
Tells about how the use of Paris Catacombs has changed as time progressed, and how much of a risk cataphiles take to be underground.

Paris’ Underground Catacombs

Author: Niko Simmons

The Catacombs of Paris are an underground cemetery located in Paris, France. The catacombs contain the remains of over six million people. Skulls and bones are aligned along the walls of the underground tunnel as it is a tourist attraction to the public.

            The catacombs for the dead were built in the late 1700’s from various cemeteries around Paris. The Cemetery of the Innocents, now the Great Central Market, was the first cemetery evacuated into the catacombs. People protested that this cemetery constituted a public health danger. The soil of the cemetery of the Innocents was said to be “flesh-eating.” It wasn’t until 1785 authorities demolished the cemetery and removed the contents to an old stone quarry in Paris. This was an underground system of tunnels and passages. The transferring of skeletons from other cemeteries took around 15 months, along with the bodies that were demolished during the French Revolution.

            The presence of increased humidity and accelerated decay on the bones would most likely dissatisfy some visitors. However, the remains present themselves as part of a vast coral reef. They are a slow accretion of minerals in a tideless sea of time. Many of these bones have been studied for leprosy, a disease in which causes skin sores, nerve damage, and muscle weakness. After being observed, none had any signs of Leprosy.

The catacombs may seem as a site of disregard and desecration, but it was never intended as such. Almost 200,000 people a year come to see the view of the underworld and grasp an idea of mortality in the catacombs. The entrance into the statured cemetery begins with a spiral stairway which consists of 130 steps. After reaching the level of tunnels and walking through long passages, there is a giant iron door detailed with an inscription. Only by light can it be seen and it says, “Arrềte! C’est ici l’empire de la mort.” It means ‘Halt! This is the empire of the dead.’ On the other side are the remains of the six million dead. 

A boy having fun with creative lighting in the catacombs

The catacombs have been the site of celebrated activities. In April 1897, a secret concert was held for over hundreds of scholars, artists, writers, and members of the Parisian government. This was the first of many festivities in the underground graveyard. Every first week in December, students from Ecole de Mines, a prestigious engineering school in France, are given a key to the catacombs and they are allowed to throw a party. Their only rule is to clean up afterwards.

The catacombs may seem as if it is a haunted chamber filled with human remains but it’s a great tourist attraction for the city of Paris. There is a meaning behind why people would want to come visit the remains of those they have never met but yet, find some kind of amusement from doing so.      

Works Cited:

Alvarez, Stephen. “Under Paris.” Photograph. National Geographic Magazine. February 2011. Web. 22 October 2012

“Catacombs.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 15 October 2012

“The Catacombs of Paris.” New York Times (1857-1922): 18 November 1857. Web. 11 October 2012

Gup, Ted. “Empire of the Dead.” Smithsonian. April 2000: 106 Gale World History In Context. Web. 13 October 2012

Jopling, W.H. Christenen, V. Moller. “An Examination of the Skulls in the Catacombs of Paris.” Medical History. 8 April 1964: 187-188. Web. 11 October 2012

Russell, Kenneth. “Skulls of the Dead- Paris Catacombs” Photograph. National Geographic Magazine. 1996-2012. Web. 22 October 2012

Shea, Neil. “Paris Catacombs.” National Geographic Magazine. February 2011. Web. 15 October 2012

Links for Further Research:

History of the Catacombs of Paris

http://www.catacombes-de-paris.fr/english.htm

Gives general information on the catacombs

Catacombs of Paris and Rome

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles13/catacombs.shtml

Compares and contrasts the two underground cemeteries

Loving Life In Paris’ Empire of the Dead

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/02/world/europe/wus-france-catacombs/index.html

Some ways of how people enjoy the “underground” lifestyle