The Paris Catacombs: A Visitor Guide for 2026

The Paris Catacombs are an underground ossuary in the 14th arrondissement holding the remains of several million Parisians, moved there from the city’s overflowing cemeteries at the end of the 18th century. You visit 20 metres below the street, on a 1.5 km route through old limestone quarries and walls of stacked bones, entering on Place Denfert-Rochereau and leaving about 700 metres away. Entry is by timed ticket only, booked online.

What are the Paris Catacombs?

They are an ossuary built inside abandoned stone quarries. For centuries Paris quarried limestone under what is now the Left Bank; after a series of collapses from 1774 the city created a quarry inspectorate to shore up the tunnels, and from the late 1780s it emptied its cemeteries, starting with the Holy Innocents, into them. Wikipedia puts the total at more than six million people. The City of Paris describes 800 metres of stacked bones arranged in 217 walls, the hagues.

Only a small part of the underground network is the ossuary, and only the ossuary is open to visitors. Parisians often call the whole network “the catacombs”; the rest of it is off-limits, which is a separate story covered in our page on cataphiles.

Can you visit the Paris Catacombs?

Yes. The Catacombs have been open to visitors since 1809 and are one of the fourteen City of Paris museums run by Paris Musées. They closed in November 2025 to finish a renovation and reopened on 8 April 2026 with a new route, new ventilation and lighting, and a new audio guide.

Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 9:45 am to 8:30 pm, with last entry at 7:30 pm; they are closed on Mondays and on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. See opening hours for the detail.

How do you get in?

You need a timed ticket booked in advance. There are three ways to get one:

• The official ticket office sells timed entry with the audio guide for €31 (reduced €25), released seven days ahead.
• Reseller entry tickets sell the same timed entry with the audio guide for about $43, further ahead, non-refundable. Compare them.
• Guided tours from $156 include the ticket, a live guide and areas closed to regular visitors. See all tours.

Slots sell out: only 200 people are allowed underground at once. On 27 October 2026 the next free reseller slot was two weeks away. The price guide lays out every option.

The entrance is at 1 avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, across from Denfert-Rochereau station (Metro 4 and 6, RER B). Getting there covers the routes and the exit.

What do you see inside?

The route starts with a spiral staircase of 130 steps. At the bottom you walk through quarry galleries before reaching the gate of the ossuary, with the inscription “Arrête ! C’est ici l’empire de la Mort” (“Stop! This is the empire of Death”). Beyond it, skulls and long bones are stacked into walls and patterns, with stone tablets, inscriptions and monuments placed among them by Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, the quarry inspector who turned the bone store into a mausoleum from 1810.

Since the 2026 renovation the audio guide is narrated in Héricart de Thury’s voice, in four languages, with images and short films projected in the corridors. Our guide to what you see inside walks through the highlights.

What should you wear and bring?

• A warm layer. It stays around 14 °C underground all year, summer included.
• Shoes with grip. The floor is uneven and can be damp or slippery.
• As little as possible. Luggage and large bags are not allowed, and there are no lockers or cloakroom. One tour operator sets the limit at 55 × 35 × 20 cm.

Photos without flash are fine on the public route; tripods and selfie sticks are not.

Who should think twice?

The visit means 130 steps down and 112 up, with no lift, so it is not accessible to wheelchair users or people with limited mobility. Tour operators also rule it out for people with heart or breathing problems and for anyone with claustrophobia: the passages are narrow and low in places. The 2026 renovation added tactile models and sign-language videos for visitors with visual or hearing impairments.

How long does the visit take?

About an hour with the audio guide, at your own pace. Guided tours run 90 minutes to two hours. You come up at 21 bis avenue René-Coty, not where you went in, so allow a few minutes to walk back to Denfert-Rochereau.

Is it worth it?

For most visitors, yes: there is no ossuary of this scale anywhere else, and reviews of the main entry ticket average 4.65 out of 5 across more than 12,000 ratings. It is not for everyone, though; are the Catacombs worth it? weighs it up.