Two million souls rest here. Beneath our feet lies the Ancien Cimetière des Innocents. Can you imagine its history?
For nearly a thousand years this Parisian cemetery thrived. It began during the Merovingian era a time when the site lay outside the city walls. A small chapel dedicated to Saint Michel stood here. Around 1130 King Louis VI the Gros replaced the chapel with a larger church. This church was dedicated to the Holy Innocents hence the name. The cemetery grew significantly when Paris’s central market moved nearby.
Under Philip Augustus the cemetery expanded. A three-meter-high wall enclosed it. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century it received the bodies of twenty-two Parisian parishes. It also held the bodies from the Hôtel-Dieu the victims of the 1348 plague and unidentified individuals from the morgue. These included those drowned in the Seine and those found dead on the streets.
The city purchased the cemetery to manage disease outbreaks. It also acquired part of the surrounding land from the Trinity Hospital. The rich received wooden coffins. The poor were buried in mass graves. These graves held 1500 bodies stacked upon each other. When one was full another was dug. The earth of the Cimetière des Innocents was said to consume a body in nine days.
Removed bones ended up in the charniers ossuaries. These were built around the cemetery during the 14th and 15th centuries. They were built above arcades between the vault and roof. One on the west side was financed by Nicolas Flamel. Another on the south side displayed a Dance Macabre fresco. Burial in the church was a privilege reserved for specific people.
In 1780 the cemetery closed. Its walls collapsed under the weight of the countless bodies within. A restaurant’s cellar nearby was flooded with bones and corpses. The remains were eventually moved to the Catacombs of Paris. Today the location is the Place Joachim-du-Bellay. Only the Fontaine des Innocents and some arcades remain as tangible reminders of the Ancien Cimetière des Innocents.