The remains of up to 500 people executed by guillotine in the French Revolution could be buried in the walls of a Paris monument, experts believe.
Bone fragments were discovered in the walls of the Chapelle Expiatoire which is a classified monument in Paris.
Archeologist Philippe Charlier examined the monument's walls with a small camera inserted through the stones, The Guardian reported. He said there was earth mixed with bone fragments.
The monument is dedicated to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who were executed at the Place de la Révolution before being formally buried at the Basilica of St Denis.
French authorities called in an archeologist, who inserted a camera through the stones in the walls, so they didn't damage the building's foundations.
The chapel's administrator Aymeric Peniguet de Stoutz had noticed anomalies in the walls between the columns of the lower chapel.
Archeologist Charlier said the lower chapel had four ossuaries — chests or boxes — made of wooden boxes, which are filled with bones and were probably stretched out with leather.
Peniguet de Stoutz has requested further research at the building.
Founded in 1816, the Chapelle Expiatoire is a chapel in the 8th arrondissement of Paris near the Grand Boulevards on the site of the old Madeleine cemetery.
The Madeleine cemetery was closed in 1794 when it reportedly run out of space.
Historians believed the remains of 500 victims buried in the cemetery were eventually transferred to catacombs under the city.
The monument was built not far from a site where the guillotine was frequently used — the Place de la Révolution.
King Louis XVI was executed at the Place de la Révolution on January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette, the final Queen before the French Revolution, was also executed there.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had been buried in Madeleine cemetery before Louis XVIII ordered their remains to be buried in the Basilica of St Denis when he became king in 1814.
Physician and opponent of the death penalty Joseph-Ignace Guillotin said capital punishment should always be decapitation and sought to introduce a humane way to carry out executions.
He proposed to the National Assembly on October 10, 1789, that this should be done by means of a simple mechanism.
The National Assembly started to look into a new method of capital punishment in 1791 with the aim of ending life without inflicting unnecessary pain.
The guillotine was deemed successful because it was considered a humane form of execution.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
