Who built the catacombs in Paris, and why?

Question

Who built the catacombs in Paris, and why?

Answer 1

By the end of the 18th century, most historical cemetaries in Paris were still in activity, some of them being more than one millenium old. The issue was that during all that time, the city had considerably grown, and even knew a population booming from 1750 to 1780.

The city had strong difficulties to manage the growth because of severe disease issues which were devastating the population. It's been found out that one of the main health issue came from the water. The rainwater which was falling on the cemetary of the Innocents brought the bacterias develloped in its ground to the river, making it undrinkable.

As such, the authorities decided to evacuate the cemetary in order to make water drinkable again. It's been decided to send the bones to a former stone carreer which was then outside the city. Later, it's been decided to do the same for all Parisian cemetaries and it is estimated that a total of 6 million corpses have been moved to what is now known as Paris catacombs located place Denfert-Rochereau.

Answer 2

They were built as limestone quarries in ancient times. It wasn't until the 1700s when people decided to start throwing bodies down there.