1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,750 (dramatic music) 2 00:00:04,860 --> 00:00:06,530 The French capital of Paris 3 00:00:06,530 --> 00:00:09,170 has far more dead than living. 4 00:00:09,170 --> 00:00:12,890 Deep in its bowels lie millions of corpses; 5 00:00:12,890 --> 00:00:16,123 the source of many mysterious stories and events. 6 00:00:17,780 --> 00:00:21,800 From the catacombs to the city's most famous cemeteries, 7 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:26,550 an investigation into the secrets of post-mortem Paris. 8 00:00:26,550 --> 00:00:28,320 The great question at the time was 9 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:30,743 what happens to people's souls when they die? 10 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:35,410 What part have the dead played 11 00:00:35,410 --> 00:00:36,973 in the history of Paris? 12 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:42,930 Have the lost souls revealed all of their secrets? 13 00:00:42,930 --> 00:00:46,743 To find out, we must investigate here, in Paris. 14 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:57,783 I'm Jean-Marc Leri. 15 00:00:58,990 --> 00:01:02,540 I've devoted my life to understanding Paris's history, 16 00:01:02,540 --> 00:01:06,593 studying its secrets, and wandering its maze of streets. 17 00:01:08,110 --> 00:01:10,863 The city holds many centuries-old mysteries. 18 00:01:11,890 --> 00:01:15,340 Often these cases are dismissed as occult phenomena, 19 00:01:15,340 --> 00:01:18,173 myths, legends, or popular beliefs. 20 00:01:20,470 --> 00:01:22,830 Things have happened here, though. 21 00:01:22,830 --> 00:01:27,830 There are facts, consistencies, and bonafide witnesses. 22 00:01:31,420 --> 00:01:35,510 Historians, scientists and investigators of all sorts 23 00:01:35,510 --> 00:01:37,330 have been unable to solve them. 24 00:01:41,950 --> 00:01:45,850 It is time to reveal the most plausible theories 25 00:01:45,850 --> 00:01:48,443 and to get as close as possible to the truth. 26 00:01:50,350 --> 00:01:53,843 Here's Paris, as you've never seen it before. 27 00:02:05,035 --> 00:02:07,535 (eerie music) 28 00:02:25,780 --> 00:02:28,427 Post-mortem means "after death". 29 00:02:30,020 --> 00:02:32,520 throughout its 2,000-year-old history, 30 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:34,723 Paris has buried millions of dead, 31 00:02:36,230 --> 00:02:39,303 way more than the capital's cemeteries could ever hold. 32 00:02:41,500 --> 00:02:44,530 The city's dead resurface from time to time, 33 00:02:44,530 --> 00:02:46,733 causing fright and consternation. 34 00:02:48,530 --> 00:02:52,303 They're here, everywhere, beneath our feet. 35 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:00,713 Under Paris, another city is reserved for them. 36 00:03:02,710 --> 00:03:06,240 The catacombs are the bowels of the city of light, 37 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:07,613 its dark side. 38 00:03:10,460 --> 00:03:12,410 The capital's cemeteries are busting 39 00:03:12,410 --> 00:03:14,163 with strange stories too. 40 00:03:15,510 --> 00:03:18,890 The vast cemeteries of the Holy Innocents, 41 00:03:18,890 --> 00:03:22,163 Pere Lachaise and Montparnasse. 42 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,490 Stories abound about strange night owls, 43 00:03:27,490 --> 00:03:31,283 secret ceremonies performed by believers in vampires. 44 00:03:33,330 --> 00:03:37,570 To sort truth from falsehood, myth from reality, 45 00:03:37,570 --> 00:03:40,900 we must investigate another Paris, 46 00:03:40,900 --> 00:03:44,070 the Paris of its dead and their secrets, 47 00:03:44,070 --> 00:03:47,023 a Paris beyond the grave. 48 00:03:51,634 --> 00:03:54,467 (emotional music) 49 00:04:01,410 --> 00:04:04,060 Unraveling the mysteries of Paris's dead 50 00:04:04,060 --> 00:04:06,923 involves a full in-depth investigation. 51 00:04:08,270 --> 00:04:11,793 There are so many places and countless intrigues. 52 00:04:13,020 --> 00:04:15,420 Behind every fact, every element, 53 00:04:15,420 --> 00:04:18,953 lies an often disturbing or unsettling enigma. 54 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:22,640 Even if this case requires us to look back 55 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,483 over the centuries, the starting point is now. 56 00:04:28,980 --> 00:04:31,410 Some of the city's dead are brought here, 57 00:04:31,410 --> 00:04:33,523 to the Paris Forensics Institute: 58 00:04:34,780 --> 00:04:39,053 deaths on public roads, criminal or suspicious deaths, 59 00:04:39,900 --> 00:04:41,493 unidentified bodies. 60 00:04:42,770 --> 00:04:45,210 Standing on the Quai de la Rapee, 61 00:04:45,210 --> 00:04:48,140 this building is the penultimate resting place 62 00:04:48,140 --> 00:04:51,550 for lifeless bodies that meet these criteria, 63 00:04:51,550 --> 00:04:53,343 be they famous or unknown. 64 00:04:54,180 --> 00:04:57,023 But it hasn't always been so in Paris's morgue. 65 00:05:01,530 --> 00:05:05,290 In the early 18th century, bodies found on the city streets 66 00:05:05,290 --> 00:05:08,620 were dumped in the basement of the prison of Chatalet, 67 00:05:08,620 --> 00:05:10,267 known as the "lower jail". 68 00:05:14,550 --> 00:05:17,650 After several moves, a new morgue was constructed 69 00:05:17,650 --> 00:05:21,220 in the mid-19th century on the Ile de la Cite, 70 00:05:21,220 --> 00:05:25,237 on a site now occupied by the Square de l'Ile de France. 71 00:05:27,100 --> 00:05:29,363 This morgue quickly became an attraction. 72 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,350 The naked corpses with water dripping on them 73 00:05:35,350 --> 00:05:38,560 to slow down decay were displayed for several days, 74 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,703 drawing hundreds of Parisians and foreign visitors daily. 75 00:05:47,130 --> 00:05:48,920 The bourgeoisie, common people 76 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:50,693 and even children flocked here. 77 00:05:52,250 --> 00:05:55,260 All were fascinated and appalled by these corpses 78 00:05:55,260 --> 00:05:58,763 decomposing on tilted black marble slabs, 79 00:05:59,700 --> 00:06:02,793 separated from the living by a simple viewing window. 80 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:06,820 Some onlookers held handkerchiefs to their noses, 81 00:06:06,820 --> 00:06:09,230 so nauseating was the stench. 82 00:06:09,230 --> 00:06:12,170 Sometimes people came to try to pick out a neighbor, 83 00:06:12,170 --> 00:06:15,033 friend, or relative and identify then. 84 00:06:16,630 --> 00:06:19,310 The police seized the opportunity to look out for 85 00:06:19,310 --> 00:06:22,173 and arrest criminals who visited their victims. 86 00:06:23,700 --> 00:06:26,950 Naturally, the morgue became the target of criticism, 87 00:06:26,950 --> 00:06:29,770 and was closed at the beginning of the 20th century, 88 00:06:29,770 --> 00:06:33,223 not for reasons of hygiene but of public morality. 89 00:06:36,470 --> 00:06:39,220 For centuries, Paris has lived on top of millions 90 00:06:39,220 --> 00:06:41,750 of famous and anonymous dead. 91 00:06:41,750 --> 00:06:45,530 Some of the capital's cemeteries feature on old maps. 92 00:06:45,530 --> 00:06:47,243 Others have not been unearthed. 93 00:06:48,860 --> 00:06:51,690 With houses and apartment blocks built since, 94 00:06:51,690 --> 00:06:53,673 excavation is hardly conceivable. 95 00:06:57,490 --> 00:06:59,380 Its disturbing to think that 96 00:06:59,380 --> 00:07:02,390 beneath the streets we tread every day 97 00:07:02,390 --> 00:07:06,413 lie thousands of souls and the city's history. 98 00:07:10,930 --> 00:07:14,623 There are cemeteries everywhere under our feet. 99 00:07:16,700 --> 00:07:20,470 The Place Joachim-du-Bellay in Les Halles district 100 00:07:20,470 --> 00:07:23,950 was once the site of the Holy Innocents' Cemetery, 101 00:07:23,950 --> 00:07:27,433 the main burial ground of central Medieval Paris. 102 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,653 The cemetery's origins are mysterious. 103 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:36,560 The first mention of this cemetery 104 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:39,140 dates from the 12th century, 105 00:07:39,140 --> 00:07:41,393 but it's probably far older than that. 106 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:46,870 For centuries, Les Halles was the city's beating heart, 107 00:07:46,870 --> 00:07:49,283 a place where the dead and the living met, 108 00:07:50,510 --> 00:07:52,920 a bustling neighborhood with its markets, 109 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,343 scribes, prostitutes and beggars. 110 00:07:59,930 --> 00:08:03,833 The capital's wealthiest citizens had individual sepulchers. 111 00:08:04,710 --> 00:08:07,453 Its poorest were thrown into mass graves. 112 00:08:10,750 --> 00:08:14,170 In 1424, one of the city's strangest murals 113 00:08:14,170 --> 00:08:16,563 appeared on the wall of charnel house here: 114 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:22,013 the Danse Macabre, or dance of the dead. 115 00:08:22,970 --> 00:08:25,820 The first known painting of this type in Europe, 116 00:08:25,820 --> 00:08:27,313 it no longer exists. 117 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,350 Only a reproduction published in 1485 118 00:08:31,350 --> 00:08:33,649 has survived to this day. 119 00:08:33,649 --> 00:08:34,482 (foreign language) 120 00:08:34,482 --> 00:08:35,790 Danse Macabre iconography 121 00:08:35,790 --> 00:08:37,990 actually has fairly ancient roots. 122 00:08:37,990 --> 00:08:41,060 This form of iconography first appeared in antiquity, 123 00:08:41,060 --> 00:08:43,890 with the meeting of the dead and the living. 124 00:08:43,890 --> 00:08:45,870 It's a rather fascinating scene. 125 00:08:45,870 --> 00:08:48,800 In my view, it is part of the specific magical aspect 126 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:52,640 of the Middle Ages, through the way it looks at society. 127 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:56,093 You have the figure of death, the skeleton, leading a dance. 128 00:08:57,560 --> 00:08:59,360 And the first people death takes by the hand 129 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,653 are the most high-ranking members of society. 130 00:09:03,460 --> 00:09:06,040 The first person to follow death is the Pope, 131 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,523 followed by the emperor, then the king. 132 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:14,840 30 skeletons converse with 30 living figures 133 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:18,580 in 15 pictures, under which eight-line stanzas 134 00:09:18,580 --> 00:09:20,920 express the vanity of our world. 135 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,140 In the Middle Ages, death was considered 136 00:09:23,140 --> 00:09:25,713 a period of sleep before eternal life. 137 00:09:28,913 --> 00:09:31,663 (dramatic music) 138 00:09:33,830 --> 00:09:35,880 In the Holy Innocents' Cemetery 139 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:37,680 the dead piled up over the centuries 140 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:39,243 as Paris spread and grew. 141 00:09:41,430 --> 00:09:44,283 The city began to be choked by its charnel houses. 142 00:09:45,390 --> 00:09:46,970 Here in the late 18th century, 143 00:09:46,970 --> 00:09:49,070 one of the most peculiar episodes 144 00:09:49,070 --> 00:09:51,113 in the history of Paris's dead occurred. 145 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:55,990 On May the 30th, 1780, 146 00:09:55,990 --> 00:09:58,740 a basement wall in the Rue de la Lingerie 147 00:09:58,740 --> 00:10:02,060 on the cemetery's edge gave way under the pressure 148 00:10:02,060 --> 00:10:04,373 of the thousands of bones behind it. 149 00:10:06,180 --> 00:10:09,203 The ground could not swallow up any more corpses. 150 00:10:10,670 --> 00:10:13,030 The air around the Holy Innocents' cemetery 151 00:10:13,030 --> 00:10:15,193 was the unhealthiest in Paris. 152 00:10:16,220 --> 00:10:20,730 In 1785, the authorities decided to close the cemetery 153 00:10:20,730 --> 00:10:24,670 and move the bones elsewhere, beneath the Montsouris plain 154 00:10:24,670 --> 00:10:27,880 in the city's 14th arrondissement. 155 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:32,880 From April the 7th, 1786, over a period of 15 months, 156 00:10:32,910 --> 00:10:35,990 the bones of two million skeletons were transferred 157 00:10:35,990 --> 00:10:39,543 to their new resting place, the Paris catacombs. 158 00:10:43,030 --> 00:10:46,340 At nightfall, so as not to scare the Parisians, 159 00:10:46,340 --> 00:10:48,970 funeral groups made their way across the city, 160 00:10:48,970 --> 00:10:51,860 accompanied by torch bearers and priests 161 00:10:51,860 --> 00:10:53,703 chanting the office of the dead. 162 00:10:55,910 --> 00:10:59,290 The bones were then tipped into the municipal ossuary 163 00:10:59,290 --> 00:11:02,140 through a shaft at the end of the Rue de la Tombe-Issoir. 164 00:11:08,487 --> 00:11:10,987 (eerie music) 165 00:11:13,170 --> 00:11:16,010 The catacombs are a whole other world, 166 00:11:16,010 --> 00:11:19,200 a place of shadows and eerie presences. 167 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,430 They're artfully arranged like an opera set. 168 00:11:22,430 --> 00:11:24,150 Time stands still here. 169 00:11:24,150 --> 00:11:28,113 The ossuary would later become the haunt of Paris's weirdos. 170 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:39,240 Cardinals, princes, ministers, beggars, prostitutes, 171 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:43,150 La Fontaine, Rabelais, Colbert, Danton, Luli, 172 00:11:43,150 --> 00:11:46,953 and Racine are here, together for eternity. 173 00:11:56,454 --> 00:11:57,287 (foreign language) 174 00:11:57,287 --> 00:11:58,790 Visitors of the catacombs 175 00:11:58,790 --> 00:12:02,220 have a different profile than visitors of museums. 176 00:12:02,220 --> 00:12:04,570 They come in search of thrills, 177 00:12:04,570 --> 00:12:08,140 and above all to see a truly unique sight, 178 00:12:08,140 --> 00:12:10,060 because there's nothing like it in the world. 179 00:12:10,060 --> 00:12:12,823 It's a mine, it's dark, it's underground. 180 00:12:14,110 --> 00:12:16,250 So it's this rather exceptional character, 181 00:12:16,250 --> 00:12:18,390 I think, that attracts them. 182 00:12:18,390 --> 00:12:20,930 Several scientific experiments have been conducted 183 00:12:20,930 --> 00:12:23,563 in the catacombs, in the ossuary of Paris, 184 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,280 because this underground, unlit environment 185 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:29,243 has aroused people's curiosity. 186 00:12:31,530 --> 00:12:36,060 For instance, botanists and experts on fauna 187 00:12:36,060 --> 00:12:39,030 have been allowed to conduct experiments here, 188 00:12:39,030 --> 00:12:42,400 in particular to see if cave fauna, fauna that lives 189 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,433 underground, without daylight, could survive. 190 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:49,290 Goldfish were put in a spot 191 00:12:49,290 --> 00:12:52,520 known as the Fountain de la Samaritan, 192 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:56,443 which is actually a sort of well, but they didn't survive. 193 00:12:57,525 --> 00:13:00,108 (spooky music) 194 00:13:05,220 --> 00:13:07,600 There's a confusion in people's minds 195 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,420 between the catacombs of Paris, the municipal ossuary, 196 00:13:11,420 --> 00:13:14,350 which is in fact a city of Paris museum, 197 00:13:14,350 --> 00:13:16,760 and the vast 300-kilometer network 198 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:19,033 of subterranean mines under the city. 199 00:13:23,950 --> 00:13:26,610 These mines are a dream for enthusiasts 200 00:13:26,610 --> 00:13:28,950 mistakenly known as cataphiles, 201 00:13:28,950 --> 00:13:31,763 when in fact they're just cavernophiles. 202 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,130 They have inspired many stories and anecdotes 203 00:13:35,130 --> 00:13:37,513 passed on from one generation to the next, 204 00:13:38,870 --> 00:13:41,900 like this headstone mentioning the disappearance 205 00:13:41,900 --> 00:13:43,883 of a mysterious Philibert Aspairt. 206 00:13:45,121 --> 00:13:45,954 (foreign language) 207 00:13:45,954 --> 00:13:47,880 There are numerous legends about the mines, 208 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:50,010 because this hidden, subterranean world 209 00:13:50,010 --> 00:13:52,630 has given rise to all sorts of fantasies. 210 00:13:52,630 --> 00:13:55,970 The legend of Philibert Aspairt has some truth to it. 211 00:13:55,970 --> 00:13:58,440 He was the gate keeper at Val-de-Grace Hospital. 212 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,930 The story goes that at the time of revolution 213 00:14:00,930 --> 00:14:03,190 he wanted to filter a few good bottles. 214 00:14:03,190 --> 00:14:05,540 He went down into the mines and got lost. 215 00:14:05,540 --> 00:14:07,070 He was found 11 years later, 216 00:14:07,070 --> 00:14:08,793 still holding his bunch of keys. 217 00:14:12,020 --> 00:14:14,000 Another terrifying legend 218 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:18,450 did the rounds too, about the ghost of a green man 219 00:14:18,450 --> 00:14:21,923 roaming the subterranean maze of galleries. 220 00:14:22,838 --> 00:14:23,671 (foreign language) 221 00:14:23,671 --> 00:14:25,150 In the days of the Ancien Regime, 222 00:14:25,150 --> 00:14:28,020 to bring goods into Paris you had to go through customs. 223 00:14:28,020 --> 00:14:30,340 Smugglers thought the best way to avoid them 224 00:14:30,340 --> 00:14:32,500 would be to go through the network of mines, 225 00:14:32,500 --> 00:14:35,290 and so they could go about their business undisturbed. 226 00:14:35,290 --> 00:14:37,900 They spread a rumor about the green man 227 00:14:37,900 --> 00:14:39,890 to dissuade people from coming to see 228 00:14:39,890 --> 00:14:42,063 what was really going on down there. 229 00:14:49,062 --> 00:14:51,812 (dramatic music) 230 00:14:56,770 --> 00:14:58,560 On the other side of the capital, 231 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:00,940 in east Paris, lies one of the world's 232 00:15:00,940 --> 00:15:04,463 most famous cemeteries, Pere Lachaise. 233 00:15:07,670 --> 00:15:10,190 Pere Lachaise's symmetry has spawned 234 00:15:10,190 --> 00:15:12,793 all sorts of legends and mysteries. 235 00:15:14,180 --> 00:15:16,163 It was opened in 1804. 236 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:20,170 Funerary monuments in a variety of styles 237 00:15:20,170 --> 00:15:23,030 reflected the tastes of the time: 238 00:15:23,030 --> 00:15:26,520 Egyptian, Greek, Roman, 239 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:28,573 gothic, and esoteric. 240 00:15:30,010 --> 00:15:32,770 Sanitary measures were put in place too. 241 00:15:32,770 --> 00:15:35,870 Bodies had to be interred in a coffin, 242 00:15:35,870 --> 00:15:38,980 wrapped in a shroud, or placed side-by-side 243 00:15:38,980 --> 00:15:40,893 and no longer on top of each other. 244 00:15:44,340 --> 00:15:45,810 Pere Lachaise would not only be 245 00:15:45,810 --> 00:15:47,990 the first modern and multi-faith cemetery, 246 00:15:47,990 --> 00:15:50,770 but the city's largest green space too. 247 00:15:50,770 --> 00:15:53,653 The idea was to stroll there without fear of death. 248 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,160 Adelaide Paillard de Villeneuve 249 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:05,230 was the first person to be interred in Pere Lachaise, 250 00:16:05,230 --> 00:16:07,083 according to the register of 1804. 251 00:16:09,500 --> 00:16:12,030 Little is known about this five-year-old girl. 252 00:16:12,030 --> 00:16:13,800 Her grave has disappeared. 253 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,830 Legend has it she was buried in section 42. 254 00:16:17,830 --> 00:16:22,360 And since 2004, a cenotaph has marked the spot 255 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:23,710 where it was thought to be. 256 00:16:32,590 --> 00:16:36,430 This is the resting place of Countess Elizabeth Demidoff 257 00:16:36,430 --> 00:16:38,900 nee Baroness Stroganoff. 258 00:16:38,900 --> 00:16:41,930 She and her husband possessed one of the largest fortunes 259 00:16:41,930 --> 00:16:45,133 in Russia, until the last Tsar fell from power. 260 00:16:46,710 --> 00:16:49,270 From here, where she dominates the cemetery, 261 00:16:49,270 --> 00:16:51,763 she's sure to be admired by every visitor. 262 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:57,230 Legend has it that she lies in a crystal coffin 263 00:16:58,270 --> 00:17:00,423 and there are rooms under the mausoleum. 264 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:06,410 She also apparently stated in her will 265 00:17:06,410 --> 00:17:09,000 that she would leave her vast fortune 266 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,423 to anyone who spent a year beside her corpse. 267 00:17:17,390 --> 00:17:19,100 People have tried. 268 00:17:19,100 --> 00:17:21,070 Some lost their minds. 269 00:17:21,070 --> 00:17:24,253 The record is supposed to be eight days and nights. 270 00:17:25,270 --> 00:17:26,303 But is it true? 271 00:17:28,268 --> 00:17:30,851 (spooky music) 272 00:17:32,370 --> 00:17:35,963 It's been said her tomb features vampire symbols, 273 00:17:36,900 --> 00:17:39,530 like these wolves' heads. 274 00:17:39,530 --> 00:17:43,200 The wolf has always been associated with vampirism. 275 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:45,617 (thundering) 276 00:17:46,590 --> 00:17:50,800 The Countess passes away on April the 8th, 1818. 277 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:55,800 This date includes three eights, and in vampire symbolism, 278 00:17:56,040 --> 00:18:00,590 888 is the number of vampires, 279 00:18:00,590 --> 00:18:05,273 just as 666 is the number of the beast and the devil. 280 00:18:06,468 --> 00:18:07,301 (foreign language) 281 00:18:07,301 --> 00:18:09,000 A vampire is an undead being, 282 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,740 an individual in search of a proper burial, 283 00:18:11,740 --> 00:18:15,363 a proper funeral, so their soul can depart from their body. 284 00:18:18,653 --> 00:18:21,153 (eerie music) 285 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:24,910 Paris and vampirism, 286 00:18:24,910 --> 00:18:27,070 this is one of the most surprising elements 287 00:18:27,070 --> 00:18:28,203 of the investigation. 288 00:18:29,690 --> 00:18:32,060 Bram Stoker, author of "Dracula", 289 00:18:32,060 --> 00:18:35,203 apparently visited Pere Lachaise in 1874. 290 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,280 His Dracula was partially inspired 291 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,430 by the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad the Impaler, 292 00:18:41,430 --> 00:18:45,030 or Vlad Tepes in Romania, who in the 15th century 293 00:18:45,030 --> 00:18:48,620 became notorious in southern Romania for his cruelty 294 00:18:48,620 --> 00:18:50,510 and the bloody and terrifying acts 295 00:18:50,510 --> 00:18:52,590 he perpetrated in the country. 296 00:18:52,590 --> 00:18:53,423 (foreign language) 297 00:18:53,423 --> 00:18:56,090 Vlad the Impaler was not a vampire, 298 00:18:56,090 --> 00:18:59,420 but he lived in a country where people were firmly convinced 299 00:18:59,420 --> 00:19:02,723 and in fact still are that vampires exist. 300 00:19:04,650 --> 00:19:07,010 Vlad is said to have had a descendant, 301 00:19:07,010 --> 00:19:11,310 Gheorghe Bibescu, who was prince of Wallachia too. 302 00:19:11,310 --> 00:19:14,093 His tomb is down here in section 28. 303 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:17,680 (foreign language) 304 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:19,000 People thought his tomb 305 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,450 featured vampiric symbols too, 306 00:19:21,450 --> 00:19:23,290 since it is topped by an eagle 307 00:19:23,290 --> 00:19:25,040 clutching a staff of authority 308 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:27,673 that has been identified as a stake. 309 00:19:28,740 --> 00:19:32,380 And well, since he was a Bibescu, it was thought, 310 00:19:32,380 --> 00:19:36,273 as he was Wallachian, he had to be related to Dracula. 311 00:19:37,950 --> 00:19:41,230 But the Bibescus were a far more recent dynasty. 312 00:19:41,230 --> 00:19:43,290 There were only two princes of this dynasty 313 00:19:43,290 --> 00:19:45,360 in the 19th century in Wallachia, 314 00:19:45,360 --> 00:19:48,243 and there are no family ties with Dracula. 315 00:19:51,464 --> 00:19:53,964 (eerie music) 316 00:19:58,850 --> 00:20:01,440 Very recently, the director of the Museum 317 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,180 of Vampires and Legendary Creatures, 318 00:20:04,180 --> 00:20:06,790 which is a stone's throw from the cemetery, 319 00:20:06,790 --> 00:20:08,930 announced on a French TV show 320 00:20:08,930 --> 00:20:11,860 that a stranger had told him a satanic cult 321 00:20:11,860 --> 00:20:15,260 had brought the body of Dracula himself to the cemetery 322 00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:18,963 and placed it in a tomb without a cross. 323 00:20:22,790 --> 00:20:24,510 At least we know, or someone knows, 324 00:20:24,510 --> 00:20:27,240 that Dracula is buried in Pere Lachaise. 325 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:28,640 What more proof do you need? 326 00:20:35,015 --> 00:20:37,765 (dramatic music) 327 00:20:43,150 --> 00:20:45,130 Some individuals would attempt to play 328 00:20:45,130 --> 00:20:48,803 with death, to transgress it in the most macabre fashion. 329 00:20:50,470 --> 00:20:54,290 It was not only in Pere Lachaise, with Countess Demidoff 330 00:20:54,290 --> 00:20:57,110 that supposed vampires lurked in Paris, 331 00:20:57,110 --> 00:20:59,103 but in Montparnasse Cemetery too. 332 00:21:03,150 --> 00:21:08,110 On July 30th, 1848, the caretakers of Montparnasse Cemetery 333 00:21:08,110 --> 00:21:12,053 found the bodies of women discarded on its quite paths. 334 00:21:14,890 --> 00:21:17,073 They had been dug up and mutilated. 335 00:21:18,870 --> 00:21:21,500 Other acts of desecration had occurred a short while 336 00:21:21,500 --> 00:21:24,593 previously in Pere Lachaise and Yvres Cemetery. 337 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,837 Who was the madman the press dubbed 338 00:21:28,837 --> 00:21:30,987 "The Vampire of Montparnasse"? 339 00:21:36,090 --> 00:21:39,203 The authorities decided to ensnare this monster. 340 00:21:40,350 --> 00:21:43,130 Near Montparnasse Cemetery's outer wall, 341 00:21:43,130 --> 00:21:45,860 where there were clear signs of an intrusion, 342 00:21:45,860 --> 00:21:47,513 they set up a booby trap. 343 00:21:49,490 --> 00:21:53,363 If touched, its trip wire would fire a number of rifles. 344 00:21:55,340 --> 00:21:58,160 On the night of March 15th, 1849 ... 345 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,320 (distant gunshots) 346 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,063 a volley of shots rang out. 347 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:05,960 An individual had been caught. 348 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:07,433 He soon confessed. 349 00:22:09,540 --> 00:22:11,730 Paris's vampire turned out to be a young 350 00:22:11,730 --> 00:22:14,773 French army Sergeant called Francois Bertrand. 351 00:22:17,860 --> 00:22:21,270 Sargeant Bertrand only received a one-year prison sentence 352 00:22:21,270 --> 00:22:22,973 for desecrating graves. 353 00:22:26,780 --> 00:22:31,060 At the time, necrophilia was not punishable by law. 354 00:22:31,060 --> 00:22:33,650 Raping a dead body was not admissible evidence, 355 00:22:33,650 --> 00:22:35,340 because rape could only be carried out 356 00:22:35,340 --> 00:22:39,853 against a living person, without that person's consent. 357 00:22:41,152 --> 00:22:44,069 (melancholy music) 358 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,373 Our journey into postmortem Paris continues. 359 00:22:51,940 --> 00:22:54,130 Another incident in this investigation 360 00:22:54,130 --> 00:22:57,053 of the city's murky depths occurred recently. 361 00:22:58,130 --> 00:23:01,453 Paris's dead are still getting themselves talked about. 362 00:23:03,540 --> 00:23:05,900 In early 2015, renovation work 363 00:23:05,900 --> 00:23:08,060 here on the Boulevard Sebastopol 364 00:23:08,060 --> 00:23:10,790 to the basement of a Monoprix supermarket 365 00:23:10,790 --> 00:23:13,323 revealed hundreds of human remains. 366 00:23:15,180 --> 00:23:18,790 Nine burial pits with around 200 bodies 367 00:23:18,790 --> 00:23:21,873 laid out in neat rows in five layers. 368 00:23:22,770 --> 00:23:24,970 This was the former site of the cemetery 369 00:23:24,970 --> 00:23:27,910 of La Trinite Hospital, which was founded 370 00:23:27,910 --> 00:23:32,050 in the 12th century and demolished in the late 1700s. 371 00:23:32,050 --> 00:23:33,610 Why so many dead? 372 00:23:33,610 --> 00:23:36,170 They were probably victims of an epidemic. 373 00:23:36,170 --> 00:23:38,753 Archeologists will determine the facts. 374 00:23:39,986 --> 00:23:43,650 Another mystery linked to Paris's dead. 375 00:23:43,650 --> 00:23:45,603 We haven't seen the last of them. 376 00:23:47,239 --> 00:23:48,072 (foreign language) 377 00:23:48,072 --> 00:23:49,470 The great question at the time was, 378 00:23:49,470 --> 00:23:52,433 what happens to peoples' souls when they die? 379 00:23:54,450 --> 00:23:56,763 Where do souls go after death? 380 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,150 Being Christian, we believe in the Last Judgment. 381 00:24:01,150 --> 00:24:03,493 No one knows when it will take place; 382 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,253 not the angels, the seraphs, or the cherubs. 383 00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:12,830 Only God or Jesus knows the date. 384 00:24:12,830 --> 00:24:14,810 So what do souls do? 385 00:24:14,810 --> 00:24:18,270 Where do the souls of the deceased go after death? 386 00:24:18,270 --> 00:24:19,653 There's no answer to that. 387 00:24:26,657 --> 00:24:29,490 (emotional music) 388 00:24:33,010 --> 00:24:35,390 In Paris, history is written 389 00:24:35,390 --> 00:24:37,780 in every step we take. 390 00:24:37,780 --> 00:24:40,480 We walk through the city of light's streets, 391 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,530 absorbed in our daily lives, 392 00:24:42,530 --> 00:24:46,090 forgetting a historic event occurred on this spot, 393 00:24:46,090 --> 00:24:50,170 or that a particular intersection, square or street corner 394 00:24:50,170 --> 00:24:53,000 is the site of a tragic incident 395 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,020 whose repercussions are still felt. 396 00:24:56,020 --> 00:24:58,730 Paris is full of unsolved mysteries, 397 00:24:58,730 --> 00:25:02,793 strange goings-on, and historical cold cases. 398 00:25:04,180 --> 00:25:07,060 The clues and keys to these enigmas are to be found 399 00:25:07,060 --> 00:25:10,700 in old books lost in the capital's libraries, 400 00:25:10,700 --> 00:25:13,623 in the city's streets or beneath its buildings, 401 00:25:14,930 --> 00:25:19,170 by the light of a candle or in the dead of night, 402 00:25:19,170 --> 00:25:23,303 by crosschecking documents, archives and records. 403 00:25:26,330 --> 00:25:30,383 Paris has not yet revealed all of its secrets. 404 00:25:32,494 --> 00:25:35,244 (dramatic music)