Catacomb
Catacombs refers to a network of underground burial galleries, the design of which originated in Ancient Rome. The word now refers to any network of caves, grottos, or subterranean place that is used for the burial of the dead, or it can refer to a specific underground burial place. Many older cities have such burial sites, and have become a place of public interest due to archaeological discoveries, and literary usage.
Etymology
The word catacomb derives from the Greek κατα (down) and τυμβος (tomb). Eventually, the word was incorporated into Latin as catacumbæ, which roughly translates as "among the tombs", and then into variations within the Romance Languages: catacomba in Italian, catacumba in Spanish, and catacombe in French. It is most likely that from the French version it was transfered into English, although linguists cannot be certain.[1]
While the word is most often used as a noun, years of literary usage and attention in public consciousness has also allowed the word to become an adjective, describing an underground area as having certain historical, and supernatural properties often associated with catacombs.
Description
Origin
The Catacombs of Rome San Sebastiano fuori le mura are ancient Jewish and Christian underground burial places near Rome, Italy.
Etruscans used to bury their dead in underground chambers. Christians revived the practice because they did not want to cremate their dead due to their belief in bodily resurrection. Hence they began to bury their dead, first in simple graves and sometimes in burial vaults of pro-Christian patricians.
The first large-scale catacombs were excavated from the 2nd century onwards. Originally they were carved through soft rock outside the boundaries of the city, because Roman law forbade burial places within city limits. At first they were used both for burial and the memorial services and celebrations of the anniversaries of Christian martyrs (following similar Roman customs). They probably were not used for regular worship. Many modern depictions of the catacombs show them as hiding places for Christian populations during times of persecution. This is unlikely, however, since the large numbers of decaying corpses would have made the air nearly (if not completely) toxic. Additionally, the general locations of the catacombs were known to the Roman officials, making them a poor choice for a secret hiding place.
There are forty known subterranean burial chambers in Rome. They were built along Roman roads, like the Via Appia, the Via Ostiense, the Via Labicana, the Via Tiburtina, and the Via Nomentana. Names of the catacombs – like St Calixtus and St Sebastian alongside Via Appia – refer to martyrs that might be buried there.
Christian excavators (fossors) built vast systems of galleries and passages on top of each other. They lie 7-19 meters (22-65 ft) below the surface in area of more than 2.4 km² (600 acres). Narrow steps that descend as many as four stories join the levels. Passages are about 2.5x1 meters (8x3 feet). Burial niches (loculi) were carved into walls. They are 40-60 cm (16-24 in) high and 120-150 cm (47-59 in) long. Bodies were placed in chambers in stone sarcophagi in their clothes and bound in linen. Then the chamber was sealed with a slab bearing the name, age and the day of death. Fresco decorations were typically Roman. The catacomb of Saint Agnes is a small church. Some families were able to construct cubicula which would house various loculi and the arquitectural elements of the space would be a support for decoration. Another excellent place for artistic programs were the arcosoliums.
In 380, Christianity became a state religion. At first many still desired to be buried in chambers alongside martyrs. However, the practice of catacomb burial declined slowly, and the dead were increasingly buried in church cemeteries. In the 6th century catacombs were used only for martyrs’ memorial services. Apparently Ostrogoths, Vandals and Lombards that sacked Rome also violated the catacombs, possibly looking for valuables. By the 10th century catacombs were practically abandoned, and holy relics were transferred to above-ground basilicas. In the intervening centuries they remained forgotten until they were accidentally rediscovered in 1578, after which Antonio Bosio spent decades exploring and researching them for his volume, Roma Sotterranea (1632).
Archeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822-1894) published the first extensive professional studies about catacombs. In 1956 and 1959 Italian authorities found more catacombs near Rome. The catacombs have become an important monument of the early Christian church.
Currently maintenance of the catacombs is in the hands of the Papacy which has invested the Salesians of Don Bosco the supervision of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus on the outskirts of Rome.
They have frequently been a topic in classical music, featuring in one of Respighi's Pini di Roma and in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Archaeological Significance
Cultural Variations
There are also catacomb-like burial chambers in Anatolia, Turkey; in Susa, North Africa; in Naples, Italy; in Syracuse, Italy; Trier, Germany; Kiev, Ukraine. Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily were used as late as 1920s.
In Ukraine and Russia, catacomb (used in the local languages' plural katakomby) also refers to the network of abandoned caves and tunnels earlier used to mine stone, especially limestone. Such catacombs are situated in Crimea and the Black Sea coast of these two countries. The most famous are catacombs beneath Odessa and Ajimushkay, Crimea, Ukraine. In the early days of Christianity, believers conducted secret worship services in these burial caves for safety and reverence for the dead. Later, they served as bases for Soviet World War II guerrillas (see also Great Patriotic War). Ajimushkay catacombs hosted about 10.000 fighters and refugees. Many of them died and were buried there, and memorials and museums were later established (it is now a territory of Kerch city)..
Catacombs of Paris
The Catacombs of Paris is a famous burial place in Paris, France. It is a network of subterranean tunnels and rooms located in what were Roman-era limestone quarries. The quarries were converted into a mass tomb near the end of the 18th century. It is most widely known as "the catacombs," but the official title is "les carrières de Paris" or "the quarries of Paris." Though the official tour only passes through the quarries in the 14th arrondissement, there are actually quarries in the 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th arrondissements (the municipal boroughs of Paris).
History
The use of the depleted quarries for the storage of bones was established in 1786 by the order of Monsieur Thiroux de Crosne, Lt. General of Police, and by Monsieur Guillaumot, Inspector General of Quarries. At the time, the Les Halles district in the middle of the city was suffering from disease, due to contamination caused by improper burials and mass graves in churchyard graveyards especially the large Saints Innocents Cemetery. It was decided to discreetly remove the bones and place them in the abandoned quarries.
Remains from the cemetery of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs were among the first to be moved. Bodies of the dead from the riots in the Place de Greve, the Hotel de Brienne, and Rue Meslee were put in the catacombs on August 28 and 29, 1788.
The catacomb walls are covered in graffiti dating from the 18th century onwards. Victor Hugo used his knowledge about the tunnel system in his novel Les Misérables. In 1871 communards killed a group of monarchists in one chamber. During World War II, Parisian members of the French Resistance used the tunnel system. Also during this period, German soldiers established an underground bunker in the catacombs below Lycee Montaigne, a high school in the 6th arrondissement. (This bunker is not on the tourist route and can only be seen during an "unauthorized visit"; see below.)
The underground tunnels and chambers have long posed safety problems for construction in Paris. Quarries sometimes cave in, occasionally resulting in a hole in the ground above and causing damage to buildings. To prevent this, the IGC, Inspection générale des Carrières (General Inspection of the Quarries) was established in 1777 by the government in order to monitor the current quarries and prohibit the digging of new quarries. The IGC did, however, dig observation tunnels in order to provide themselves with better access to the quarries so that they might better monitor, repair, and map the consolidated quarries.
The monitoring and consolidation work has continued to this day. Because of the number of quarries, subway tunnels, train tunnels and sewer tunnels that have been dug underneath Paris, as well as the softness of the stone involved, extra caution is taken when new construction is attempted or new tunnels are dug. (This did not prevent problems during the digging of Paris Métro Line 14.)
The catacombs today: unauthorized visits
Entrance to the catacombs is restricted. The portion of the catacombs open to the public is only a small part of an extensive network of underground tunnels, which spans more than 300km (about 186 miles) in length. The tunnel system is complex, and though some tunnels have plaques indicating the name of the street above, it is still quite easy to get lost: some passages are extremely low or narrow and others are partially flooded. There are also aging telephone wires, pipes, etc. that can hinder progress, and cave-ins, although rare, do occasionally occur. A good guide is therefore indispensable, and even many good guides still refer to a map from time to time. Because of these potential dangers, accessing the catacombs unescorted by officials has been illegal since November 2, 1955; today, there is a €60 fine if one gets caught by the cataflics—the special police who patrol the catacombs.
However, secret entrances do exist throughout Paris and it is possible to enter the catacombs via the sewers, metro, and certain manholes. Some unofficial visitors also hold keys to certain official entrances. On rare occasions people do make use of these access points and illegally enter the catacombs—for example, to meet clandestinely, to hold unusual parties, or simply as urban explorers. (Specifically, those who have an affinity for exploring the catacombs are known as cataphiles.)
For those who frequent the tunnels—either by official or unofficial means—cataphile etiquette includes leaving no garbage behind and never leaving entrances such as manholes open, as this could pose a potential danger to the public and thus might inspire officials to seal the entrance. Most cataphiles also look down upon tagging (that is, leaving behind graffiti in the form of a stylized signature).
In September 2004, an underground movie theater run by the Mexican Perforation—a French artistic movement that seeks to convey their ideas using underground places—was discovered by the French police.[2]
Capuchin catacombs of Palermo
The Capuchin catacombs of Palermo are burial catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. Today they provide a somewhat macabre tourist attraction as well as an extraordinary historical record.
Palermo's Capuchin monastery outgrew its original cemetery in the 16th century and monks begun to excavate crypts below it. In the 1599 they mummified one of their number, recently-dead brother Silvestro of Gubbio, and placed him into the catacombs.
The bodies were dehydrated on the racks of ceramic pipes in the catacombs and sometimes later washed with vinegar. Some of the bodies were embalmed and others enclosed in sealed glass cabinets. Monks were preserved with their everyday clothing and sometimes with ropes they had worn as a penance.
Originally the catacombs were intended only for the dead friars. However, in the following centuries it became a status symbol to be entombed into the capuchin catacombs. In their wills, local luminaries would ask to be preserved in certain clothes, or even to have their clothes changed at regular intervals. Priests wore their clerical vestments, others were clothed according to the contemporary fashion. Relatives would visit to pray for the deceased and also to maintain the body in presentable condition. The catacombs were maintained through the donations of the relatives of the deceased. Each new body was placed in a temporary niche and later placed into a more permanent place. As long as the contributions continued, the body remained in its proper place but when the relatives did not send money any more, the body was put aside on a shelf until they continued to pay.
The last friar interred into the catacombs was Brother Riccardo in 1871 but other famous people were still interred. The catacombs were officially closed for use in 1880 but tourists continued to visit them. However, the last burials are from the 1920s. One of the very last to be interred was Rosalia Lombardo, then two years old, whose body is still remarkably intact, preserved with a procedure now lost: the embalmer, Professor Alfredo Salafia took his method with him to his grave.
The catacombs contain about 8000 mummies that line the walls. The halls are divided into categories: Men, Women, Virgins, Children, Priests, Monks, and Professionals. Some bodies are better preserved than others. Some are set in poses: for example, two children are sitting together in a rocking chair.
Famous people buried in the catacombs include:
- Colonel Enea DiGuiliano (in French Bourbon uniform)
- Salvatore Manzella, surgeon
- Lorenzo Marabitti, sculptor
- Filipo Pennino, sculptor
- Son of a king of Tunis who had converted to Catholicism
- Allegedly Velasquez, Spanish painter, although his grave is officially unknown
The catacombs are open to the public. Taking photographs inside is prohibited although the bodies were shown in detail in the fourth episode of the 2006 BBC TV series Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe.
Also, iron grills have been installed to prevent tourists tampering or posing with the corpses.
Pop Culture
Books
- In Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum, the Paris catacombs were the resting place of a parchment concerning The Templars.
- Many scenes in Bad Voltage, an 80s cyberpunk novel by Jonathan Littell, take place in the catacombs. The author is suspected of being a cataphile.
- In Barbara Hambly's novel Those Who Hunt the Night, which takes place in 1907, two characters investigating the murders of London vampires descend into the catacombs. There they find Brother Anthony, a 600 year old priest turned vampire, living among the bones of the dead. Anthony believes that if he helps the dead find and assemble their bones when the trumpet sounds on Judgement Day he will win redemption for his sins.
- In Robison Wells' novel, The Counterfeit, the catacombs are the location of a fictitious Illuminati meeting place. The main characters, Eric and Rebekah, are guided through the catacombs by a group of three cataphiles.
- In Edgar Allan Poe's short story of 1846, "The Cask of Amontillado," the main character Montressor walls up another man inside a cavity, deep within some catacombs, which are described as being "lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris."
- Max Brooks, in his book World War Z, about a hypothetical zombie epidemic, refers to the catacombs as being used and extended by refugees.
- In Tess Gerritsen's novel, Body Double, one of the main characters is lost in the Parisian Catacombs towards the beginning of the book.
- In Interview with the Vampire, vampires are residents of the catacombs in Paris.
Films and television
- The cult classic Les Gaspards, known in English as The Holes, was filmed in and revolves around the catacombs. It was made in 1974 and stars a young Gerard Depardieu.
- The upcoming film Catacombs is set in the Paris catacombs, even though it did not receive permission to film there. Catacombs features the singer P!nk and the actress Shannyn Sossamon.
- Though not truly filmed in the Parisian catacombs, a Hollywood set created to mimic the catacomb ambiance was used in the production of the music video Slither by the rock band Velvet Revolver.
- In the anime television series Noir, the fifth episode takes place in the Parisian catacombs.
- In the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the catacombs are used by Captain Pheobus and Quasimodo to find the court of miracles.
Computer and video games
- In the computer game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, the player has to enter the Paris catacombs via a manhole in order to find a clue that leads to the next part of the game.
- In Deus Ex, set in 2052, the player has to traverse part of the catacombs to reach another area of the city. The catacombs in the game's world are home to a clandestine group of French revolutionaries named Silhouette, who make their home in the German World War II bunker. A news terminal found in a building that serves as the catacombs entrance gives a brief history of the catacombs.
- In Medal of Honor: Underground, one of the missions involves traversing the catacombs in order to escape German authorities after a mission to steal weapons goes bad.
- In the Nancy Drew game, Danger by Design, Nancy enters the catacombs to retrieve important clues.
- In Midnight Club II, the Catacombs play host to high speed automobile races, or can be used in a shortcut in above-ground races.
- In Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, the elite special forces team Rainbow must explore the Catacombs of Paris to locate and eliminate a nest of terrorists within.
- In the Tomb Raider III expansion, The Lost Artifact, Lara Croft explores a hidden area deep within the catacombs in the Paris levels. It is here where she finally recovers the Hand of Rathmore, (the artifact that she was looking for), but it is also where she confronts one of her arch enemies, Sophia Leigh, once again.
Computer and video games
Catacombs are a popular feature of many computer and video games due to their association with horror and the undead. Some of the more well-known game catacombs are listed below:
- Catacombs are a common setting for the Tomb Raider series, particularly Tomb Raider 1 and Tomb Raider 2 with the Catacombs of the Talion.
- In the Diablo series, catacombs and other burial grounds are frequent settings for the game's action. These typically include sarcophagi which the player can loot for treasure, and which often release undead enemies.
- In Ultima VIII: Pagan of the Ultima series, the player must explore the catacombs as part of his quest.
- The Catacombs feature in the computer game Deus Ex, whereby the player must navigate through the paris catacomb network to escape the majestic 12 antagonists.
- In the classic game "The Bards Tale" for Amstrad CPC, Spectrum, Apple IIe etc, one of the more advanced dungeons to be explored are the catacombs, involving three levels of progressively harder dungeons filled with roaming undead and other creatures.
- In Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Level 5 took place in the Catacombs.
- In Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, there are Catacombs which contain treasure, weapons, and undead monsters
- In LucasArt's Mysteries of the Sith, the final level is set in a massive catacomb, in real life length measurements: 5 square miles. The character Mara Jade must save Kyle Katarn from the dark side. Kyle is suspended on a pedstal in the middle of the level, until Mara discovers him...
Film
Catacombs is a film starring Alecia Moore (aka Pink) due to release in 2007, which takes place in the Parisian catacombs.
In the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) travel through the Catacombs in Venice while on a search for clues to the location of the Holy Grail.
In the film The Bunker (2001 film), German soldiers trapped in a concrete bunker try to find an escape route through subterranean catacombs, where unspeakable evil lurks.
Gallery of paintings from the catacombs of Rome
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford Press, 1971). ISBN 019861117X
- ↑ La Mexicaine De Perforation. Urban-Resources. Urban-Resources. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
External links
- About the Roman Catacombs
- Catacombe Roma
- Rodolpho Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome 1892, Chapter VII: Christian Cemeteries
- Rome Catacombs
- The Catacombs of St Callixtus
- (English) Explographies.com : Catacombs of Paris - Cartography, maps & plans of the catacombs and underground quarries
- (English) Underground Paris—A Paris Catacombs virtual tour with photos
- (French) History and information on unofficial visits
- (English) Urban-Resources
- (English) La Mexicaine De Perforation
- (English) Urbanadventure—Information source on the catacombs with images, videos and maps
- (English) Zone Tour—Database of Urban Exploration
- (French) Cyber Kata—List of links to various sites about urban exploration
- (French) Comperes Exploration—Pics and reports of a french ubran exploration team.
- (English) Catacombs of Paris—some useful information, description, links
- (English) "A tour of the dark world beneath the city of lights" by Murray Battle
- (French) Official website, opening hours, entrance fees
- (English) www.Guerillaphotography.co.uk - Urban exploration site with a tour of the catacombs and a write-up
- (English) The Parisian Underworld impressions of a visiting American student
- Paolo Ventura - Dressed for Eternity
- Athanasius Kircher Society about the catacombs
- King's Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo
- Tourist information about the catacomps in Whatsonwhen
- Paradoxplace Catacombe Cappuccini Page
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