Tunnel of Bones

The title of Tunnel of Bones is inspired by its primary setting, a real location in France called the Paris Catacombs. The Catacombs are an underground ossuary—a depository for the bones of the dead—containing the remains of several million Parisians.

In the late 18th century, the city’s overloaded cemeteries were tied to a public health crisis. Authorities decided to transfer the cemeteries’ human remains to a pre-existing and easily accessible underground site: a series of quarry tunnels called the Tombe-Issoire quarries. They lay beneath the plain of Montrouge, which, at that time, was outside the city limits. The quarries began operating in the 15th century or earlier but had since been abandoned. The entire labyrinth of tunnels, of which the quarries were only a small part, spreads over approximately 800 hectares, which is about three square miles.

The first transfer of remains into the tunnels began in 1785 and involved Paris’s largest graveyard, the Saints-Innocents cemetery. The transfer for this one cemetery took two years because the work had to be done at night to avoid confrontations with angry citizens and the church. Workers dumped the bones into two quarry wells and then distributed them and piled them in galleries. With a benediction and consecration ceremony, the municipal ossuary officially became known as the Catacombs on April 7, 1786. 

The Catacombs are currently open to all visitors with no authorization requirements, and nearly 550,000 people visit them each year. People can access virtual tours via the Les Catacombes de Paris website. The website also features more information about the site’s history, including a chronology of the land beginning 53 million years ago (“Virtual Visit.” Les Catacombes De Paris).