The Bone Carts of the Holy Innocents: A Night in Paris, 1786 | Aeon History

The bone carts leave the Holy Innocents at midnight in Paris, 1786, carrying the dead of Les Halles south to the old quarries at the barrière d'Enfer. For ten centuries this small cemetery beside the market held the parish dead of central Paris, until a cellar wall on the rue de la Lingerie gave way in May 1780. This slow chronicle follows the fifteen months of night work that emptied the ground: black cloth over the carts, lantern light above the open pits, priests chanting the Office of the Dead along the quiet road south. It follows Charles Axel Guillaumot, Inspector General of the Quarries, as the cold limestone galleries beneath the Plaine de Montsouris fill in the dim lamplight, and it comes to rest on a market square, a fountain, and the hushed ossuary known today as the Catacombs of Paris. 🌌 Aeon History, long histories for the slow hours. Subscribe to keep the lanterns lit:    / @historyaeon   🎧 If you are listening to fall asleep, keep the lights low and let this play. Good night. ========= Long-form chronicles of the human past, ancient, medieval, and forgotten histories. Slow, scholarly narration for the quiet hours. 📜 Histories across the ages: ancient history, medieval history, lost civilizations, biographies, military history, history for sleep. Sources & further reading: Michel Augustin Thouret, report on the exhumations of the cemetery and church of the Holy Innocents (1789) Antoine François de Fourcroy, papers on the grave fat found in the exhumations of the Holy Innocents (1789 to 1790) Antoine Alexis Cadet de Vaux, account of the cellar on the rue de la Lingerie (1780s) Philippe Ariès, The Hour of Our Death #AeonHistory #ParisCatacombs #FrenchHistory #HistoryForSleep #SleepHistory