Underground Galleries of Provins, Provins

A network of subterranean passages and chalk-carved chambers beneath the medieval upper town, originally dug in the 12th–13th centuries to extract fuller's earth for the local wool industry during the Champagne Trade Fairs. The accessible section runs about 250 metres under the Hôtel-Dieu and rue Saint-Thibault, though the full network extends an estimated 25 kilometres beneath Provins and surroundings. Over 160 low-vaulted rooms contain carved graffiti and Masonic inscriptions spanning the 15th to 19th centuries.