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Beneath our feet lies a hidden world.
Not tunnels. Not caves.
Entire cities underground — open for exploration.
What are catacombs?

  • Vast networks of underground passages, chambers, and galleries
  • Originally carved for burial, ritual, refuge, and survival
  • Expanded over centuries, often by different civilizations
  • Some systems stretch hundreds of kilometers, forming true subterranean cities

Key Aspects of the Odessa Catacombs:

  • Structure: The network is a chaotic, mostly unmapped web of tunnels, basements, and abandoned quarries. It is two to three times larger than the Paris catacombs.
  • Historical Uses: They have served as smugglers' tunnels, partisan hideouts during WWII, and Soviet-era bunkers.
  • Modern Significance: As of 2022, parts of the catacombs have been cleared by volunteers for use as bomb shelters, especially since Odesa lacks a subway system.
  • Hazards: With over 1,000 entrances, the tunnels are dangerous to explore without a guide due to the risk of getting lost, structural collapses, and flooding.
  • Tourism: Guided tours are available,
  • While the Odessa Catacombs are the most famous, other smaller, separate labyrinthine systems exist elsewhere in Ukraine, such as the Adzhymushkai quarry tunnels.

Why catacombs were they created around the world?
Burial: to care for the dead outside city walls
Faith & secrecy: early religious communities worshipped underground
Stone extraction: quarries slowly transformed into passageways
Protection: used as shelters during wars, invasions, and persecution
Who used them?

  • Early Christians, Romans, medieval communities
  • Monks, refugees, resistance groups
  • Some people hid, worked, or lived there for months — even years in rare cases

Visiting today

  • Many catacombs are now walking underground museums
  • Frescoes, carvings, inscriptions, and tombs remain intact
  • Feel history under your feet while exploring labyrinthine corridors

Why they fascinate us

  • They are cities of memory — holding faith, fear, survival, and silence
  • A reminder that history doesn’t only rise upward… it also disappears downward

**Where are the most famous catacombs?

  • 🇮🇹 Italy — Rome, Naples, Sicily
  • 🇫🇷 France — Paris
  • 🇲🇹 Malta — Rabat & Ħal Saflie
  • ODESSA/UKRAINE

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