The Paris Catacombs E-Book

Fabrizio de Gennaro

• Herausgeber: Digital Index
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Beneath the streets of Paris lies a forbidden underground world: nearly 300 kilometers of tunnels that run deeper than the city's sewers and metro lines. These mysterious passageways bear hidden traces of key moments in history — from the French Revolution and the Paris Commune to the failed coup of 1937 by the Cagoule, the German occupation, and Cold War nuclear shelters.

The catacombs stretch 15 to 25 meters below ground, sometimes across two or three levels. Originally ancient stone quarries, they provided the materials to build many of the city’s iconic monuments. Today, these underground tunnels offer a rare glimpse into a forgotten Paris — a city whose hidden stories remain buried beneath the surface.

Officially, only a small portion of the catacombs is open to the public: about 6 kilometers beneath the Left Bank, housing the remains of six million Parisians from the city's former cemeteries. But beyond this section, hundreds of kilometers of tunnels remain off-limits. Adventurous explorers, known as cataphiles, defy the authorities to venture inside, often accessing the network through manhole covers and hidden shafts that are frequently sealed off or reinforced.

Entry to these dark passages has long been forbidden. Yet throughout history, people have used them to hide, escape, or move discreetly through the city during turbulent times. The catacombs played a role during the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and other uprisings — even earning a mention in 19th-century literature and more recently in Umberto Eco’s The Prague Cemetery.

In more modern times, these tunnels served a strategic purpose. In 1937, the far-right paramilitary group known as the Cagoule attempted a little-known fascist coup from the underground. During World War II, the German occupiers built air-raid bunkers in the tunnels, while members of the French Resistance used them as a hidden headquarters during the city’s liberation. In the Cold War era, secret nuclear shelters were quietly built beneath public buildings, far from the public’s knowledge.

Since the 1980s, the catacombs have become the setting for clandestine parties, where small groups of students and thrill-seekers evade authorities and navigate this forbidden underworld — even as the entrances are periodically sealed shut.

Exploring the Paris catacombs means diving into centuries of forgotten stories and hidden histories — an underground city that holds the secrets of a tumultuous past.

Leseprobe

Fabrizio de Gennaro

The Paris Catacombs

A Secret History of Underground Paris

To Isabeau, my lux tenebrarum

and to all victims, of any origin, religion and color,

of the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris

Acknowledgments

There are many people I must thank for this work.For their support, encouragement, time spent answering my questions and valuable advice:

journalist and writer George Verpraet

historian Henri Amouroux

historian Henri Noguères

the director of the National Museum of the Resistance, Mr. Krivopisko

the commander of the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (FFI) in 1944, Rol-Tanguy

the president of the Comité Parisien de la Libération in 1944, André Tollet

my fencing masters from the Police Prefecture of the 5th arrondissement, André and Jean Piot

and also

David Adelinet, Valerio Caruso, Xavier Ramette, Eric Sendre, Luca Sergi and many other cataphiles for all the nights and underground emotions shared

Virginio Bortolani for his first precious advic

Professor Vera Zamagni for her interest and the freedom with which she allowed me to write the thesis that was the origin of this work

director Sebastien Carfora for giving voice and images to the emotions

Tommaso Cavallaro for his support in the final draft

Mario de Gennaro and Nicole Tavaux because without whom this work would literally never have seen the light of day.

Introduction

It is well known that Paris 

is perforated underground 

by its system of drains, 

so often described by novelists, 

but beneath the city’s network of sewers, 

stretching as far as its boundaries and beyond, 

is a maze of limestone and chalk caves 

and ancient catacombs. 

Much is known about some of these, 

but little about others.

Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery, 2010

Paris is known and loved mainly for what's on the "surface".

Generations of tourists have walked its rues and boulevards, visited its museums, admired its monuments.

Certainly to reach the many points of interest one must use the métro and for those unfamiliar with it, it can be picturesque and even a bit adventurous.

But under the city, beneath the sewers and even the metro lines themselves lies another city.

Countless galleries run at depths of 15-25 meters, sometimes on two or three levels, for almost 300 km under the city intra-muros: the Catacombs of Paris.

Originally they were ancient stone quarries, from which materials were extracted to build countless monuments and buildings. Today these underground passages offer the unique and unexpected possibility of discovering an ancient and forgotten Paris. For these galleries have preserved traces and testimonies of past events and of the numerous events that Paris has witnessed throughout history. Traces that have disappeared from the surface.

Of these mysterious underground passages, one can officially visit a very small part under the rive gauche, about 6 km, which houses part of the city's ancient cemeteries: 6 million human remains. The remaining galleries extend for hundreds of kilometers and are still traversed today by some adventurous souls who defy the prohibition and obstacles to enter them, generally through manhole covers hiding the pole-mounted wells for descending, often walled up or sealed shut.

It has always been forbidden to enter and walk through these dark galleries. They were used to hide, escape or move around the city discreetly, in all the "heated" periods of Paris's history: since the French Revolution, during the Paris Commune and in all turbulent periods. They are cited several times in nineteenth century literature and more recently by Umberto Eco in "The Prague Cemetery", his penultimate novel (2010).

These underground passages also had strategic importance in more recent times when in 1937 the Cagoule, an armed far-right faction, attempted a little-known fascist coup d'état; during World War II the Germans built anti-aircraft bunkers there while the Parisian resistance used them for their headquarters during the Libération; during the Cold War, unbeknownst to public, they were used by the government to build atomic shelters under some public buildings.

Since the 1980s they have been the refuge for countless clandestine parties where a tight circle of students, but not only students, mocking the authorities, manage to penetrate the underground despite the manholes for entering being cyclically closed.

An intersection in the galleries of the XIV arrondissement

Indeed, it is strictly forbidden to enter and circulate in what are now called the Catacombs of Paris.

The purpose of this work is to illustrate their history including through the reconstruction of untold events to offer the possibility of exploring and discovering the numerous sites, meanders and labyrinths that snake beneath the unknowing city of Paris. Thus to discover what has happened and how many things can still be seen today in the catacombs of Paris.

The originality of this work, originally a thesis in Historical Research Methodology presented at the University of Bologna, lies in the opportunity to consult Paris police archives inaccessible for decades to French researchers and thus offer previously unpublished documents and testimonies about many "underground" events that are not present even in books about the catacombs of Paris published in France. 

Some of these unpublished materials are in the appendix to the work. 

I must emphasize that those who, through reading the history of the Catacombs of Paris, will feel called to adventure and develop the intention to continue personal research in the field: access to the underground passages of Paris is a dangerous activity and, above all, forbidden. Should knowledge of said prohibition not be sufficient to dissuade the free spirits of our time, I trust that reading this text will help understand what risks they will expose themselves to both legally and to their own safety: refrain from proceeding especially in the absence of adequate physical preparation and necessary equipment and knowledge.

Finally I remind writers and the more creative, or simply those who want to leave their own graffiti in the catacombs of Paris, to respect the historical and artistic value of what these underground places have preserved and today give us: respect those who preceded you and the many who found their final resting place there.

Additional useful details (maps and entrances) are available in the Practical Guide at www.parigisotterranea.it/guida

Walled entrance well under the Jardins du Luxembourg

What Lies Beneath Paris

Human history is rich with living and well-preserved testimonies of the past, but these are necessarily destined to disappear: time and society's objectives are projected toward the future. In this sense Paris appears different from the great cities that, in growing, had to clear away their ancient topography and often whatever was historically connected to it. Paris has forgotten, or rather, has been able to forget, its underground. 

The city's growth has been primarily upward and outward, with limited downward expansion. It has built new buildings and monuments above the ancient ones, has opened new boulevards between the old streets and has built the subway at a relatively limited depth..

The disinterest in the deeper layers of its subsoil has allowed them to be preserved, unlike what was on the surface, which has been completely transformed.

The deeper underground thus served to clean the city of its ancient dead: since the 18th century over 6 million individuals have been transported to the underground and the dead from the various massacres that Paris's history has produced have also found a discreet place, where they would not disturb public opinion: anciens and nouveaux régimes have thus tacitly found themselves together.

Conspiracies in the catacombs, from A. Dumas's novel, Les Mohicans de Paris, 1863

These underground passages have become the city's subconscious. A vast moral and historical repository where, along with the dead, the opposing extremisms were also thrown to be forgotten, abandoned and allow the living to continue. The underground has thus preserved traces of the past that only the careful explorer can still read.

In the numerous tumultuous periods that Paris has experienced over the course of its history, many times the galleries have been the scene of illicit trafficking, the hiding place or communication routes for sects and secret societies, willingly or unconsciously protected by fear and popular superstition. Circumstances and their morphology have thus allowed these ancient limestone quarries to remain unaltered until today, giving us the unique and extraordinary possibility of deciphering and discovering something that is often inaccessible and completely elusive: history.

But these mysterious galleries are affected by a centuries-old illness: if for more than a thousand years the catacombs1 were forgotten because relatively lacking in interest, periodically part of the galleries gets drowned in cement, essential for consolidating some new building that must be constructed on the surface. In the 1980s the "Laser" project wanted by then Paris mayor Chirac would have had to run the highway and railway under the city at a depth that would have required destroying most of the ancient underground passages. That project was suspended, but the sword of Damocles of modern development still hangs over the Catacombs of Paris.

An ancient graffiti under the Vaugirard district: "Long Live Napoleon III Emperor 1855"

Indeed the work of the Inspection Générale des Carrières2 continues. Every year a part of the galleries disappears irremediably into cement. All this makes their visit, besides being clandestine, increasingly difficult and adventurous.

The fact that access to the ancient underground stone quarries is categorically forbidden has prevented their study by most. No television crew, lecturer, historian, archaeologist, in short practically no scholar obtains permission to descend and traverse the hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels in the unofficial network of the catacombs. Soon, only books, photographs and clandestine footage will remain to illustrate the underground passages of Paris.

The Origin of the Underground

J'engage les personnes qui n'ont pas vu d'interieur de carrières, et qui ont du gout pour l'horrible, aller visiter cette colossale curiosité pendant qù'il en est temps encore

L. F. Hivert, Esquisse sur les Catacombes de Paris, 18613

The palaces, churches, walls, monuments of Paris were built by extracting most of their materials from its own soil. Clay, gypsum and stone were at hand, one only needed to dig.

The Paris Basin indeed rests on several geological layers: gypsum, which is the most important, clay, limestone (which geologists have named Lutetian) and layers of sediments alternating with limestone.

The hills of Montmartre and Belleville that dominate the capital are made of gypsum: the name Lutetia would derive from Lucotecia, from the greek Leucotes, whiteness, because the houses were built externally of gypsum. This variety of materials was a true wealth for the Gallo-Romans who began to expand the city around the original islet on the Seine, the Cité, particularly on the left bank, where many Roman public buildings were erected.

All the excavations made outside the ancient perimeter of Paris, and which are now in the very center, have left deep traces in the topography and underground. Not all Parisians know they walk on almost 300km [186mi] of galleries (800 hectares [1977ha] out of the city's 10,000 hectares [24,710ha], almost one-tenth of the total), what remains of the ancient limestone quarries. More than half of the arrondissements4 resemble a giant stone Swiss cheese.

Consider that the entirety of the metro lines, which as we know form an impressive spider web, barely exceed 200km (124mi) in length. The tangle of underground passages, often on multiple levels, generally no more than three, occupy 700 hectares under the left bank, in the V, VI, XIII, XIV and XV arrondissements, under the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Luxembourg gardens, Jardin des Plantes, under Place d'Italie, Denfert-Rochereau, Glacière, la Butte-aux-Cailles, Montsouris, etc.

On the right bank there are two underground networks carved into limestone, in the XVI arrondissement under Passy, the hill of Chaillot (the Trocadéro) and in the XII arrondissement under the Daumensil district, toward Porte Dorée, for a total of about 50 hectares.

The limestone galleries do not stop at Paris intra-muros, but rather extend for many more kilometers under the periphery, particularly toward the south, east and northwest.

The gypsum quarries, now filled with debris and backfill material, were all concentrated on the right bank, under the VII, X, XII, XVI, XVIII, XIX arrondissements, for over 60 hectares. The galleries were impressive, their height reaching 18 meters, the natural pillars around which they dug to extract the material looked like inverted pyramids.

Several gypsum quarries were found under the hills of Montmartre, Belleville, Ménilmontant (under Père Lachaise cemetery) and Mont-Valérien.

Map of underground quarries under the districts of Paris

Already developed in Merovingian times, gypsum production had a strong push in the 17th century. In some gypsum quarries they dug up to four levels of galleries which increased their fragility. Due to serious accidents they were the first to disappear. For this reason nothing now remains of these gigantic cavities.

The tranquility of the pax romana encouraged the construction of stone buildings, they began to dig wells about twenty meters deep in the eastern flanks of Mount Leucotitius to extract the limestone that was found at that depth, then they advanced horizontally, digging and extracting as they proceeded. As the demand for materials was ever increasing, they continued to extract heading toward the course of the Bièvre, a tributary of the Seine, at the height of today's Jardin des Plantes. The Bièvre, so called by the Romans because of the presence of beavers (biber), crossed the city's left bank and joined the Seine near today's Pont d'Austerlitz. The Bièvre, covered over in the twentieth century, is now a major collector of the sewer network.

When the work of constructing a palace or church, or whatever was being built, was nearing completion, the quarry would be abandoned and over the years, forgotten. This extraction system remained in effect from the High Middle Ages until the 18th century, when the first legislative interventions appeared to control and curb extraction from Paris's underground.

From the 17th century onward, extraction wells are shown on city maps drawn with a large wheel similar to that of a mill (which in this case served to lift the blocks), placed above the well entrance; valuable information for their future identification.

Detail from Louvin de Rochefort's 1675 map of Paris: region south of Luxembourg, the Carthusians at top, small spoked circles indicating quarry entrances

On July 12, 1678 Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, ordered the members of the Academy of Architecture to "visiter incessamment toutes les anciennes églises et bastiments de Paris et des environs pour examiner la qualité des pierres dont ils ont été batis, celles qui ont été endommagées par l'air, l'humidité, le soleil et la lune." 5

The work finished on April 10, 1679, and thus it was discovered that the foundations of the Church of Saint-Etienne-des-Grés (where Saint Denis, patron saint of the city, celebrated his first mass in the year of grace 251), were built with stones from nearby quarries, under the fields beyond the walls, near the Bièvre, now the ancient districts of Saint-Marcel and Saint-Victor. Similarly the Arena of Lutetia, vast Roman amphitheater built in an open quarry no longer used in the Saint-Victor district. The stones for Thermes de Julien were extracted from the same quarries.

The Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève begun under the Merovingian king Clovis I around the year 500, was built with materials from the quarries of Saint-Marcel and so was the portal of Saint Julien-le-Pauvre.

The tower of Notre-Dame-des-Bois, erected in the ancient cemetery of the Innocents (disappeared in the 18th century), to protect the city entrance and the Hospice of Sainte Catherine, at the edge of a wood, now Les Halles, was built with stones from the quarries near the Bièvre like the Abbey of Saint Martin-des-Champs, ancient palace of Robert II, son of Hugh Capet and all constructions prior to 1067.

The foundations of the Abbey of Saint Germain-des-Prés built in 1245 were of cliquart and liais6 from the nearby quarries along the lower road (or via Infera), those of the Carthusian monks and Boulevard d'Enfer and Mont-Parnasse.

The oldest walls of Notre Dame de Paris, those erected around 1257, with Templar gold according to legend, are of limestone from the Saint-Michel, Saint-Jaques, Saint-Marcel districts.

The stones of the Cordeliers convent, in the faubourg Saint Marcel, former palace of Queen Margaret, wife of King Saint Louis, who gave it to the religious order in 1294, come from the nearby quarries, on the banks of the Bièvre or the Marché aux Chevaux.

The donjon of the Paris Temple in the 18th century, what remained of the medieval Templar citadel

The great square donjon of the Temple, the Donjon du Temple, the main building of the fortified Templar citadel, had been built in 1306 with stones from the quarries of faubourg Saint Jaques and Mont-Souris7 as well as all constructions prior to 1385 of the Hôtel-Dieu, the oldest hospital in Paris.

The château de Madrid, built under Francis I near the Bois de Boulogne, was erected with stones extracted at Chaillot.

The purpose of Colbert's study was to find the best stones for constructing the Louvre, stones that would be extracted from the quarries of Saint-Cloud and Mont-Parnasse.

In the 17th century when architect François Mansart was tasked with building the Val-de-Grâce monastery for Anne of Austria, he had to deal with very lengthy consolidation work: under the foundations of the future abbey three levels of galleries were discovered, totaling 40 km of underground passages.

Under Louis XV the École Militaire was erected with stones from new quarries that had to be opened under today's Vaugirard district. At the time of Colbert's study for contemporary constructions in the Marais, the Palais-Royal, the Île Saint-Louis, Place Dauphine, the bridges, etc., stone was being extracted from the suburbs of Arcueil, Bagneux, Montrouge and from the Saint-Jaques and Saint-Marceau districts.

When all the stone had been extracted from the closest quarries, they would go a little further outside the city to look for new materials.

One can therefore say that for every building in the city there corresponds an identical mass void in the underground: beneath the profile of Paris, there is its reverse...

In all eras Paris has had its stone quarries, just outside its perimeter, and only in 1910 was the last one closed. Those of Montmartre and Buttes-Chaumont, called d'Amerique because the extracted gypsum was exported as far as the United States, were definitively abandoned only after the war of 1870.

The hunt for insurgents in 1848 in the Montmartre gypsum quarries

First Historical Episodes

The first events that history records about the ancient quarries are collected in a 15th century chronicle: Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris, written by an anonymous clerk. In the last week of September 1434, during the Hundred Years' War, a baker named Jean Trotet allegedly attempted, along with others, to introduce soldiers from Charles VII's Scottish troops into the city. 

The plan was well orchestrated: false prisoners, escorted by accomplices, were to enter through the gates of Saint-Denis and Saint- Antoine hiding weapons: "about three or four thousand Armagnacs were to ambush around Paris inside the quarries in the surroundings, which quite enough and too much surrounded Paris (...). But God, who took pity on the city, made their plan known..."

In 1438 a traitor named Miles de Saulx, before being beheaded had revealed the entrance to ancient caves and galleries that led right into the city and where the English could have passed. Indeed already in those times many galleries dug in previous eras and then abandoned had been forgotten and could only be found by chance. 

"Et cestui Miles enseigna plusieurs grandes caves et anciennes, touchant aux carrières, desquelles on ne savait rien, par lesquelles on devait bouter les Anglais dedans Paris, mais dieu qui tout sait ne voulut consentir".8

After the strategic use in wartime came activities of a completely different nature in peacetime. Today's Place Saint-Jacques, in the nineteenth century was a place of execution for those condemned to death and one of the gates in the ring of walls erected in 1783, was in the sixteenth century an ill-reputed place frequented by bandits or more exactly its adjacent underground: the road that led to Orléans, then among the most important because it connected the capital with the southern part of the kingdom, passed above the carrières whose galleries extended deep under the districts of Notre-Dame-des-Champs and Saint-Jaques, providing safe refuge for a moltitude de flambards, pillards de route et ribleurs de nuits.9

Travelers were robbed so frequently that in May 1548 the Paris Parliament ordered the district inhabitants to form a guard corps which, however, not only failed in its task but was actually "...defeated, ridiculed, ransomed, wounded and served no purpose." 

In 1563, following further complaints, Parliament finally ordered the nightly closure and during holidays of the quarry entrances.

Authorization to visit the Catacombs 1800

The Fief of the Tombe-Issoire

The origin of the name Tombe-Issoire is linked to various legends. Its exact origin is controversial. Today only the name of a street remains, rue de la Tombe-Issoire and some ancient inscriptions in the underground to recall ancient stories.

According to some historians the origin of this name goes back to a famous bandit, Isouard, Isoré, Isoire, or Issoire, who, after being arrested and executed, was supposedly buried here. Another legend instead tells of a Saracen giant who, in the time of Charlemagne, had come right up to the city walls, followed by 15,000 men. He was killed in single combat by a knight named Guillaume and then buried in a great mausoleum at the point where he had fallen. The origin of the legend is an epic poem, the Moniage Guillaume10, composed in the 12th century, of which two versions are known: one composed around 1160 and the other around 1180.

Under the rue de la Tombe-Issoire

To make their prose more credible, authors of the time often resorted to topographical details. However, and this is important, this information often referred to the era in which the prose was composed rather than to the era of the narrated events.

The epic tale narrates the adventures of Guillaume d'Orange, who opposed the Germanic invasion of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II in 978. A legend within history: Emperor Otto II had invaded France, reaching as far as the hill of Montmartre where his troops camped, to challenge King Lothair; a German soldier, advanced to the Porte de Paris, threw down the challenge to whoever dared face him. The challenge was taken up by a Frankish warrior who got the better of him and killed him.

The author of this heroic deed has always remained unknown, but in the epic poem he takes the name of Guillaume, who killed Isoré (the bandit) "of Saxony", who led an army of Saracens.

The numerous historians who have dwelt on the story have been mistaken about the location of the combat, as a study from the last century and a more recent one have shown.11

It would have taken place instead on the right bank of the Seine, in front of the "Grande Porte", where around 1150 the Châtelet was built. Isoré's tomb which in the Middle Ages was identified with a mound on the route d'Orleans, was actually the last reference point, the "frontier" line, before leaving (sortir >> issir) the territory of Paris, going south. "Issoire" would be the verbal adjective derived from the past participle of "issir".

Thus, tradition has passed down a topographical error that many historians have repeated.

In any case it is historically proven that on the same site, around where the rue du Saint-Gothard, passes, not far from rue de la Tombe-Issoire, stood the commandery of Saint-Jean-de-Latran of the Order of the Knights of Malta. In the underground the religious dug crypts where Knights of their order and Templar Knights were buried.

An act of October 26, 1396 reveals to us the exact extent of the properties of the Saint-Jean-de-Latran commandery, which, besides owning "un moulin à vent appellé la Tumbe Ysore, et plusieurs autres terres, heritages et possessions assis au dit lieu12, had plusieurs quarrieres [carrières] de pierre, lesquelles quarrieres yceulx religieux avoient acoustume de bailler et faire bailler par ateliers à plusieurs personnes qui en avoient eu et auroient à faire pour certains pris et sommes d'argent que yceulx pre-venus en etoient tenuz de paier...13

These quarries were rented by the religious to the carrier (the quarrymen) who paid a price depending on the quantity of stones they extracted. During some work at the beginning of 1900, the staircase leading to these underground passages was rediscovered, where numerous bones were found. These were taken to the main Ossuary, while the staircase was destroyed and the galleries unfortunately completely obstructed.

Engraving by Sébastien Leclerc, 1695, showing a wheel for hoisting stones extracted from the quarries, with Val de Grâce in the background

The Val de Grâce

The immense voids that can only be discovered clandestinely14 under the former Monastery of Val-de-Grâce, now the Military Hospital du Val-de-Grâce, are impressive. This maze of galleries, several kilometers long, extends under the entire district and before erecting the monastery had to be completely explored and consolidated.

Under the Val de Grâce

In 1645 Anne of Austria commissioned her architect Mansart with the monastery's construction. Indeed Mansart did not imagine he would discover, while digging the foundations of the future building, three levels of galleries, extending a total of about forty kilometers...

All the funds he had been given thus served to consolidate the underground. He had a magnificent staircase built, 18.9969 meters deep [62,32579ft][ (as indicated by the nearby inscription!), which was meant to facilitate workers' access to the underground passages: it is the most important staircase for accessing the quarries of Paris. Since it allows access inside the vast Military Hospital it has obviously been walled up at the surface.

At the bottom of Mansart's staircase

Mansart had a multitude of supporting pillars built and only then could he begin construction work on the Monastery's surface. When he reached only the first floor of the building, the money ran out. The regent took the work away from him and entrusted it to three architects, who managed to speed up the work and finished the construction quickly, thanks to Mansart's preliminary and indispensable work. 

Exploring the immense voids that have remained unchanged for over three centuries, one can reach a room where there is a well that accesses the surface or, more precisely, Anne of Austria's private chambers: it was the trou de service de Madame la Reine [the Queen's service well]. 

Long since obstructed, it is one of the sites commonly visited while walking through the Val-de-Grâce labyrinth.

Inscriptions from the period indicate the presence of a cistern that, in the past, existed in the convent gardens, or and the location of the Pavillon de la Reine.

The oldest recorded graffiti in the Paris catacombs, 1647, found by the author in the galleries under Val de Grâce. This date is significant because Val de Grâce was under construction during that period, and in 1647 the work to reinforce the underground passages was still ongoing before they could proceed with the actual construction of the monastery.

The Paris Charterhouse: The Underground Passages of the Carthusian Monks

From the 12th century numerous religious congregations that owned vast lands, particularly on the left bank of the Seine, began extracting stones again from abandoned ancient quarries or opening new ones. This was done by the Genovéfains, Feuillantines, religious of Saint-Victor, the Ursulines and particularly the Chartreux.

The underground passages of the Carthusian monks are among the best preserved. They are the best example of the historical panorama they witnessed. The origin of the underground passages has very distant roots and the events that took place within them reach up to our days.

The Charterhouse disappeared with the French Revolution and only thanks to the underground passages does any trace remain.15

Not far from where the French Senate now stands, in the southern part of the Luxembourg gardens, King Robert I, called the Pious (967-1031), son of Hugh Capet, had a castle built before the year 1000. It stood in a valley far from the city walls, in the Vallis Viridis, from which comes the name: castle of Vauvert.

As was customary then, the stones used for its construction were extracted nearby, thus leaving vast cavities that were abandoned when work was completed.

The Castle of Vauvert, anonymous print (Carnavalet Museum)

The decision to build the castle just outside the walls was made after Pope Gregory V had invalidated his marriage and requested separation. The king's marriage in 995 to a fourth-degree cousin, Countess Bertha, was considered an incestuous and highly deplorable act. Dark political and hereditary maneuvers, the spouses' resistance to requests for separation, explains the decision of the Council of Rouen to pronounce excommunication. The Archbishop of Tours who had married them and the bishops who had consented to the union were suspended.

While this unequal and hopeless struggle continued, the king went to retreat in his castle outside Paris, along with just two servants who could not touch him when dressing or serving him and who burned everything he touched. Robert I finally surrendered to the power of the Church, publicly confessing and breaking all ties with Bertha, but not before having had a son from his wife.16

The castle was abandoned and soon became overgrown with brambles. Having belonged to an excommunicated person, no one wanted to go near it anymore. And very soon it came to be considered the devil's abode. The road to Issy, an ancient Roman road that passed next to the castle, then took the name of Via Infera, then Chemin d'Enfer and thus was born the Diable de Vauvert, which for many years terrorized all those who had to pass along that stretch of road.

According to a particular esoteric view, sabbaths were held in this place, ceremonies that attested to the survival of pagan rites within Christianity.17

For other authors the abandoned castle, in ruins and cursed, erected above unexplored and forgotten underground passages, at the foot of Mont Souris, an initiatory mount in the pagan scenario, became in reality the perfect hiding place for brigands, cutthroats and other devils in flesh and blood who waited for travelers heading toward the city walls not far away.

The Chartreux fountain, under the ancient monastery

The legend fueled by fires, sulfur fumes and nocturnal noises only served to better protect the hideout. People were convinced it was the devils' abode: ils y faisaient un tintamarre épouvantable. Personne n'y pouvait passer, qui ne fust frappé, offensé ou navré. Un chacun en fust effrayé.18

In 1257 Louis IX, Saint Louis, wanted the disciples of Saint Bruno, the Carthusian monks to be welcomed near the city. The king gave Dom Jean de Josserand and the four monks who accompanied him some lands and vineyards at Gentilly, near Paris. But after a year the five Carthusians asked to be able to settle in the abandoned castle of Vauvert, which perfectly suited their order's austerity. The king gladly granted it to them, along with all its dependencies and adjacent lands, warning that l'hotel de Vauvert étoit depuis longtems en ruines et que les malins esprits i faisoient leur résidence.19

The battle, according to ancient chronicles, was terrible. "Dom Joceran e sette dei suoi fratelli entrèrent en la maison de Vauvert, le jour de la Sainct Collumbain, abbé, 21 novembre, ou ils furent trois jours et trois nuicts continuellement en prières, faisant procession par ledict hostel. Or, en trois jour, iceux religieux et autres de leur famille ou domestiques ouyrent tonner et bruire en autre manière qu'ils n'avoient accoutumé, et virent en icelle maison s'eslever des fumées et comme brouillards noirs et puants, qui corrompirent l'air, car les malings esprits s'efforcoient d'empescher le dessin desdits religiux et leur nuire ou mesfaire. Mais, enfin, ils n'eurent aucune puissance sur eux et furent contraints de quitter la place".20

The calling of the Carthusians by Saint Louis could have been justified also by the need to extinguish the last pockets of paganism that still subsisted in the ancient Roman area of Vauvert, a situation that the Carthusians had already faced near the Bièvre, in their first residence at Gentilly. Only the courage of Saint Bruno's disciples could hope to annihilate the "degenerated neolithic traditionalism", which evidently could not and did not want to integrate with Christianity.21

Before leaving for the crusades the king had the manor restored, where eight cells were set up and gave the Carthusians other vineyards near Vauvert purchased from the diocese of Saint-Etienne-des- Grés. During the second crusade the construction of the church was interrupted in place of the castle chapel. It seemed to be too large and too magnificent for the simplicity of their order. Then work resumed, "ils ouvrirent deux carrières, qui étoient dans leur clos même, d'ou ils tirèrent si grande quantité de pierres qu'ils en remplirent tout leur hotel, car ouvriers, de bras et de carrières, ils n'en manquoient pas. Mais de maçons et tailleurs de pierre ils n'en avoient qu'à peine et par la faveur de leurs amis, parce qu'environ ce même temps, l'on faisoit grans ouvrages et somptueux édifices en Paris, comme les Cordeliers, les Quinze- Vingts, les Blancs-Manteaux, Sainte-Crois de la Bretonnerie, et nombre d'autres églises et communautés".22

Subsequently and still with stones extracted from the underground a wall was erected that surrounded all their property.

For long centuries the Chartreux flooded that corner of countryside beyond the walls of Paris with peace, continuing to embellish their Charterhouse.

Their work continued even after 1778 despite the State Council's prohibition on extracting stone within Paris. They thus reached as far as under the rues d'Enfer, rue de Tournon, rue de l'Odéon, rue Casimir-Delavigne, rue Cassette, rue Bonaparte, rue Campagne-Première, etc.