Paris Morgue

Paris

The Paris morgue was located on the Quai de l'Archevêché on the Île de la Cité, not far from the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Paris. It was a form of macabre theatre, which regularly attracted spectators because the bodies which were fished out of the Seine were put on display there, behind a large glass window, along with the clothes that they had been wearing. On June 28, 1867 a body was found without a head, arms and legs, and put on display. The head, arms and legs were found a few days later, and the body was identified, and the murderer tracked down and arrested. The system was macabre but effective; seventy-five percent of the bodies found in the Seine were identified in this way.