How a Parisian morgue became a popular attraction among citizens in the 19th century
Nowadays, residents of large cities have access to a lot of entertainment. Discos, clubs, cinemas, museums, exhibitions, cafes and simply shopping centers help brighten up the leisure time of people of different ages, status and income. But in the old days this was all bad. You could have an interesting time at the execution, watching barbaric competitions or... visiting the morgue. In 19th-century Paris, the city mortuary was more popular than theaters and was a hit with adults and children.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the Parisian morgue was located in the gloomy and cramped Grand Châtelet castle. One of the city prisons was also located there. In 1804, the morgue moved to its own building near the Pont Saint-Michel. It was lighter and more spacious there, but this place also did not arouse much interest among the townspeople.
In the mid-19th century, the so-called “Haussmanization” of Paris took place. The city was rebuilt according to the design of Baron Haussmann, and the capital of France from a medieval cramped city turned into an elegant European metropolis with wide avenues and boulevards. During the reconstruction of the capital, a modern building was erected for the morgue behind Notre Dame Cathedral.
From that moment on, the Parisian morgue turned into an attraction for citizens and guests of the city. It is worth saying that it was possible to look at the dead before. This was done so that the dead people found on the streets and in the waters of the Seine could be identified. People mostly went to the old morgues on business - in search of missing relatives and friends, or for the sake of science.
The spacious and bright building of the new morgue changed the attitude of Parisians towards this sad institution. On a weekend morning, the father of the family read in the newspaper that another corpse had been caught in the Seine. This immediately lifted his spirits and he gave instructions to his wife and children to get dressed and prepare for the excursion.
Families of the capital's residents headed to the morgue to gaze at the dead. Naked bodies lay behind glass on tables, covered in certain places with pieces of cloth. The clothes and personal belongings of the deceased were hung nearby on special hooks. It was interesting, unusual and, of course, nerve-wracking.
The classic of world literature Mark Twain once visited a Paris morgue and described it in 1869 in his travel notes:
Agree, the spectacle is so-so, especially for children and women.
It also happened that the marble tables were empty. But near the morgue one could still meet the loitering public. The onlookers were still hoping that suddenly someone would be brought. There were real sellouts, when even the spacious premises of the mortuary could not accommodate everyone. This happened after high-profile murders, covered in detail in the press. For example, in 1876, more than 400 thousand people came to see the body of a woman killed by her lover caught in the Seine.
Sometimes the morgue workers put on macabre shows for the public. One day, the body of a 4-year-old girl, instead of being placed on a table, was placed on a chair. Parisians, hungry for spectacle, immediately besieged the morgue, and the crush at its doors continued for several days. Some terrible “exhibits” of the Paris morgue went down in history like the famous “stranger from the Seine”.
Only at the beginning of the 19th century the question of the ethics of such entertainment was raised. The Paris morgue was closed to the public in 1907. Soon silent films became the townspeople's favorite show. Well, until 1939, thrill-seekers could gawk at public executions carried out using the guillotine.