A couple weekends ago I got to go to Luxembourg and was able to visit the Catacombs there. I thought it was really interesting because the vision in my head of what Catacombs looked like was vastly different from what I saw. There were no bones and if dead bodies were stored down there, they are long gone. It was built into Bock Promontory in 1745 and used until after the second world war. It was mostly used as a place to hold military personnel and weapons if there was ever an attack on the city but also would hold prisoners especially when the castle above was still operational. Another interesting thing about this set of catacombs is that it’s under an old castle but it isn’t underground in the same sense that the French catacombs are. They are on the side of the mountain with plenty of viewpoints out into the city for fresh air and most likely cannon use. Surrounding the catacombs are the old city walls which were cool to see as well.
Earlier this week I was able to go into the Paris Catacombs. Those were a lot different than the ones in Luxembourg. This was specifically built to hold dead bodies because the french cemeteries were getting too full. At the time the location of the catacombs were near the edge of the city, but with the city’s growth, it is now well within the city limits. Over 6 million bodies were transferred there and arranged in a way to look like a pattern of femurs and skulls. The interesting thing is that this was meant to be viewed as an attraction from the beginning and guests would go down and view the skeletons. Along the lines of what I thought the Luxembourg catacombs would look like. It’s amazing how two places called the same name can be so vastly different from each other. It makes me question why the Luxembourg Catacombs were called catacombs in the first place.
Attached below are pictures from the Luxembourg Catacombs and under that are photos of the Paris Catacombs.
What a fantastic observation about the differences between the two “catacombs.” You are being so enriched on this trip and absorbing so much history. Thank you for sharing the beautiful pictures as well.
what an interesting comparison! that’s so crazy that they are both called catacombs but used for entirely different purposes.
When you said Luxembourg- I thought you meant the Garden and I was like, “Holy hell, I gotta go!” A few minutes of frantic searching later and I figured out you meant the country, not the Senate house.
There goes my grand ideas of sneaking undercover in a hat and trench coat to the Senate and discovering their secret catacombs.
Cool post, though! I hadn’t really thought about other underground ossuaries and how they compare to the famous Paris Catacombs.