Catacombs of Paris
#8von 9 Orten zum Besuchen in ParisParis, Île-de-France, France
Auch bekannt als Les Catacombes de Paris · Catacombes de Paris
Kurz gesagt
Öffnungszeiten: 09:45–20:30, closed Mondays, last entry 19:30. Eintritt: €31. Plane 1.5 hrs ein. Beste Zeit: First entry slot at 09:45 or the final slots.
Aktualisiert am · Erstellt von Traveliac, KI-unterstützt · 4 Min. Lesezeit
- Öffnungszeiten
- 09:45–20:30
- Closed Mondays
- Eintrittspreis
- €31
- Ticket ab
- Benötigte Zeit
- 1.5 hrs
- Beste Tageszeit
- First entry slot at 09:45 or the final slots
- Beste Monate
- Apr – Jun, Sep – Oct
- Adresse
- 1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris
Über Catacombs of Paris
The Catacombs of Paris hold the remains of roughly six million people, transferred from overflowing Parisian cemeteries into disused limestone quarry tunnels beginning in 1786 and continuing through the 1860s. The public route covers about 1.5 kilometres of a much larger network - the full quarry system beneath the city runs to roughly 300 kilometres, most of it closed and unmapped for public access - descending 20 metres below street level via a spiral staircase of 131 steps. Bones are stacked in deliberate decorative patterns along the ossuary corridors, arranged by quarry inspector Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury in the early 1810s to make the site presentable for public visits rather than left as unstructured piles.
Beste Tageszeit: First entry slot at 09:45 or the final slots. Before 19:30. The narrow underground corridors bottleneck badly once several timed groups overlap mid-afternoon.
Öffnungszeiten von Catacombs of Paris
Catacombs of Paris öffnet um 09:45 und schließt um 20:30. Samstags und sonntags gelten dieselben Zeiten.
- Öffnungszeiten
- 09:45–20:30
Monday Closed Tue–Sun 09:45–20:30 - Tuesday-Sunday 09:45-20:30 (last entry 19:30)
- Geschlossen an
- Monday, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Gut zu wissen: Reopened in spring 2026 following renovation for accessibility improvements.
Öffnungszeiten zusammengestellt aus catacombes.paris.fr und öffentlichen Quellen, zuletzt aktualisiert am . Sie können sich ohne Vorankündigung ändern — vor der Reise bitte bestätigen. Wie wir diese Reiseführer schreiben
Eintrittspreis für Catacombs of Paris
| Ticket | Preis |
|---|---|
| Standardticket | €31 |
| Ermäßigt (Studenten / Senioren) | €25 |
| Kinder | €15 |
€31 full rate, €25 reduced rate, €15 for ages 8-17, free under 8, as of 2026, with an audio guide included. Timed-entry booking is mandatory - there is no walk-up ticket sales at the door. Verify current pricing at the official site.
Preise zusammengestellt aus catacombes.paris.fr und öffentlichen Quellen, zuletzt aktualisiert am . Sie können sich ohne Vorankündigung ändern — vor der Reise bitte bestätigen. Wie wir diese Reiseführer schreiben
Beste Reisezeit für Catacombs of Paris
- Quiet
- Moderate
- Busy
- Very busy
09:45 - 11:00
Morning Opening
First timed-entry groups of the day; corridors still comfortable for slower walking.
Moderate11:00 - 15:00
Midday Peak
Overlapping timed groups create the tightest bottlenecks in the narrowest ossuary corridors.
Very busy15:00 - 18:00
Afternoon
Crowds remain heavy but move at a more even pace than midday.
Busy18:00 - 20:30
Evening ClosingBest time to go
Final entry slots before 19:30 draw the smallest groups of the day.
Quiet
Geschichte von Catacombs of Paris
Parisian cemeteries, most critically Les Innocents near Les Halles, reached crisis-level overcrowding by the 1780s, with decomposing remains reportedly breaching into adjacent cellar walls and contaminating groundwater. The royal government ordered the closure of Les Innocents in 1780 and began transferring its remains into the abandoned Left Bank limestone quarries - the same stone that had built much of Paris - starting in 1786, a process that continued intermittently as other cemeteries closed through the early 19th century.
Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, appointed inspector of the quarries in 1810, organized the previously haphazard bone piles into the wall-lined arrangements visitors see today, adding commemorative plaques and inscriptions drawn from religious and literary sources about death. The ossuary opened to limited public visits as early as 1809, making it one of the oldest continuously operating tourist attractions in Paris, and has drawn illicit explorers - known as cataphiles - into the unauthorized sections of the broader tunnel network for well over a century, an activity that remains illegal and actively policed.
Regeln & Etikette in Catacombs of Paris
Mandatory timed-entry booking online is strictly enforced; there is no ticket sales at the entrance, and arriving without a reservation means being turned away regardless of queue length. The route is not wheelchair accessible - 131 spiral steps down and a further 112 steps up at the exit, with no lift alternative - and is unsuitable for visitors with claustrophobia given corridor widths under two metres in places.
Removing or touching bones is prohibited and monitored by staff along the route; the temperature underground holds a constant 14°C regardless of season, so a light layer is worth carrying even in summer. Large bags and backpacks are checked at the cloakroom before descent, since the exit staircase and narrow sections do not accommodate bulky items.
Tipps für den Besuch von Catacombs of Paris
- 1
Booking several weeks ahead is close to essential in peak season; timed slots for popular hours sell out well in advance given the site's fixed hourly capacity for safety reasons. The exit emerges more than a kilometre from the entrance at a different address entirely on Rue Rémy Dumoncel, so visitors should plan the return route or onward journey before descending rather than expecting to come back to Denfert-Rochereau directly.
- 2
The audio guide included with the ticket adds substantial historical context that the sparse on-site signage alone doesn't provide, particularly on the engineering history of the quarries themselves, which predates the ossuary use by centuries.
Anreise nach Catacombs of Paris
1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 ParisRoute in Google Maps
Ab Paris-Orly (ORY)
12 km · 30-40 min
€13.60
Ab Gare du Nord
6 km · 20 min
€2.15
Ab Gare Montparnasse
2 km · 10 min
€2.15
Nächster Flughafen
Ab Paris-Orly (ORY)
12 km, approximately 30-40 minutes via Orlyval and RER B.
Nächste Station
Ab Denfert-Rochereau (Métro Lines 4 and 6, RER B), directly above the entrance.
Häufige Fragen zu Catacombs of Paris
Can you buy Catacombs of Paris tickets at the entrance?
No. Timed-entry booking online is mandatory, with no walk-up ticket sales at the door as of 2026. Visitors without a reservation are turned away regardless of queue length.
How many remains are held in the Paris Catacombs?
Roughly six million people, transferred from overflowing Parisian cemeteries into disused limestone quarry tunnels beginning in 1786 and continuing intermittently through the 1860s.
Are the Catacombs of Paris wheelchair accessible?
No. The visitor route requires descending 131 spiral steps and climbing 112 steps back up at a separate exit, with no lift alternative, making it unsuitable for visitors with mobility restrictions.
Does the Catacombs exit come back out near the entrance?
No. The exit emerges over a kilometre away on Rue Rémy Dumoncel, a different street entirely from the Denfert-Rochereau entrance, so visitors should plan their onward route in advance.
Mit KI-Unterstützung aus offiziellen Quellen und öffentlichen Aufzeichnungen erstellt und erst nach den Prüfungen veröffentlicht, die beschrieben sind unter Wie wir diese Reiseführer schreiben. Niemand von Traveliac war persönlich vor Ort. Zuletzt aktualisiert am . Wie wir Orte bewerten und prüfen
