Olympic stadiums and Notre Dame’s restoration aren’t the only building projects getting attention in Paris this year; another is taking place underground in an unusual project to stabilize the city’s famed catacombs.
The underground tunnels, housing the skeletons of millions of former Parisians, have become unstable in parts, and experts are carefully restacking and rearranging the bones in some of the 200 stacks that line former quarries under the southern part of the city.
Care is needed not only to create the best presentation for visitors—the Catacombs are a popular visitor attraction—but also to keep the weight of the bones from crushing each other.
The original interments in the catacombs came in the late 18th century as overflowing churchyards were emptied, both to permit new building and froem a fear that decaying corpses were spreading disease. In the 19th century, as the city was rebuilt and expanded, even more bones were added.
