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Paris Catacombs Reopen After Five-Month Conservation Overhaul

Tickets are online only with 2,000 daily slots, driving long waits to enter.

Overview

  • The Paris Catacombs reopened after a five-month project that improved conservation, ventilation, and lighting.
  • Restorers stabilized bone walls by placing long bones at the front and stacking rounded bones behind them to hold the structure.
  • Site managers say the limestone tunnels stay very humid and keep shifting, so crews will continue to shore up and maintain the galleries.
  • Access now requires online reservations made seven days ahead, with 2,000 tickets a day, demand three to four times higher, and no on-site sales.
  • About 20 meters below the city, the ossuary holds remains moved from Paris cemeteries between 1786 and 1814 and now draws roughly 600,000 visitors a year.