Basilique Saint-Michel
Gothic bell tower crypt where naturally mummified bodies drew crowds for two centuries.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Basilique Saint-Michel in Bordeaux opens with an unusual job: for nearly two centuries, a hired guide led paying tourists through the crypt beneath this bell tower, tapping each of dozens of naturally mummified bodies with a candle on a stick to prove they were real. You'll hear how those bodies turned up in 1791 when workers cleared the surrounding graveyard, why the soil here preserved them rather than letting them decay, and about famous visitors like Victor Hugo and Gustave Flaubert who came to see them. The tower above the crypt has its own survival story, standing apart from the church on ground its own architect never trusted.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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