Catacombs Around the World




From Wikipedia: The ossuary holds the remains of about 6 million people[1] and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines. Opened in the late 18th century, the underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1867. Following an incident of vandalism, they were closed to the public in September 2009 and reopened 19 December of the same year. The official name for the catacombs is l'Ossuaire Municipal. Although this cemetery covers only a small section of underground tunnels comprising "les carrières de Paris" ("the quarries of Paris"), Parisians today often refer to the entire tunnel network as "the catacombs.






The bigger question for many of us who find the storage of 6,000,000 people's bones as macabre, is could it be haunted? In general, I tend to believe that the only time that graveyards are haunted are when families come to grieve and call upon the dead, but an underground location filled with bones could very well have the right "alchemy" to create some very strange phenomena.

I really enjoyed this movie with a catacomb theme-- "Catacombs"



The catacombs in France are not the only ones. There are catacombs around the world. In Peru, they have some under the Iglesia de San Francisco (below).


How about the Capuchin Monastery in Rome (below)?



In London's West Norwood, there is this (below) - 


Rome has this - (below) In fact, in the past few decades, they've discovered over 40 of them so far.


Green-Wood Cemetery, NYC (below) - 


Here's a list of ones around the world and some might just surprise you!


Austria – Catacombs of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
Czech Republic – Catacombs of Znojmo
Egypt – Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa (or Kom al Sukkfa, Shuqafa, etc.) in Alexandria
England – Catacombs of London and others
Finland – Catacombs of the Helsinki Orthodox cemetery at Hietaniemi cemetery
France – Catacombs of Paris. Mine workings were used at end of the 18th century and had no religious purpose other than as an ossuary for storing the bones of cleared graveyards.
Ukraine – Odessa Catacombs
Italy – Catacombs of Rome; Catacombs of Naples; Capuchin catacombs of Palermo and others
Malta – Rabat Catacombs

Peru – Catacombs of the Convento de San Francisco, Lima
Spain – Catacombs of Sacromonte in Granada
United States – Indianapolis Catacombs



Indianapolis (below) - 



St. Agatha of Malta (below) - 






To some, it may seem macabre to display the bones of the dead, but in older countries, were there are thousands of years of burials, it is a beautiful and respectful way to be stored en masse as we lived on earth. 



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