Louis Cemetery attracts more than , visitors each year. Some come to leave offerings for Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, while others come to tend the graves of loved ones interred within St. Louis Cemetery remains an active gravesite. Louis Cemetery was built in One caveat: Unlike most other New Orleans cemeteries, St. You may notice a few savvy tour guides sporting both wide-brim hats and parasols to block the sun.
Photographs, on the other hand, are welcome—and your tour guide will be happy to snap a picture of your group. Photo by Kathryn Valentino. Once located at the marshy city limits, St. Louis Cemetery is now near the center of the city, thanks to the draining of the swamps, which permitted people to settle beyond the French Quarter.
These tombs stack gravesites, filing cabinet style, one above the other. Many oven vaults house the remains of countless family members. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Oddly Enough Updated. By Jonathan Kaminsky 2 Min Read. Louis and Conti. The larger, older dimensions are still visible as provisional cross-hatches on the map, extending out into what is now Basin Street. So when you enter at the main iron gates, the Varney pyramid tomb that you encounter used to be closer to the center of the place.
While unique to the United States, the above-ground tombs of New Orleans are actually derived from a European model. The Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is perhaps the most famous example, its beautiful tree-lined walks stacked with tomb after tomb.
There's one huge difference, though: the French buried their dead in the ground, under those grand monuments. Perhaps New Orleans' Spanish government at the time was taking their cue from some of their own country's above-ground cemeteries like those near Barcelona. The Poble Nou cemetery is a good example. At St. Archdiocesan staff refer to a 'two stack" or "three stack," shorthand for the two- and three-decked layers of most of the old family tombs.
Bristling with camera gear, I was welcomed at the gates of No. Bailey and Coleman are combination guards, caretakers and custodians all rolled into one. They keep the place open and running on a schedule, ride herd on the tourist groups and generally make sure everyone is reasonably well-behaved.
I ask Bailey if he can show me the location of the tomb of Bernard de Marigny, someone I had done a story about a few months back. We take off at a fast lope. Do any of the dead ever talk to him, I ask?
He chuckles, then laughs: "No, not to me," he said. Filming in No. It's a rabbit warren of casual alleys and aisles, tombs erected willy nilly, not always in consideration of the others around it. The early days of tomb building look to have been an ad hoc affair, no surveyors involved in the layout.
And it's almost completely devoid of the statuary found in many other cemeteries, eye candy for us photographers always searching for a focal point. In addition to the many family tombs are a handful of large society tombs, like the Italian Society tomb and the New Orleans Musicians tomb. Membership in one of these groups assured one of a proper burial, much like burial insurance does today. More than , people a year visit St.
Bailey and Coleman keep a well-worn binder that lists all of the tour companies allowed inside. A guide must accompany each group that enters. Most tour operators charge about 20 bucks to take the tour.
Out of this, the Archdiocese gets only a dollar a head. The exception is for "walk-ups,'' people who show up ignorant of the rules and simply want to see inside. Tour companies rotate for the chance to snag these people, keeping one of their guides near the front gates to collect these sightseers and form them up into a group. I glom onto a big Grayline tour about to start. The guide checks with her boss and, reassured that it's OK to have me along, launches into her spiel.
It's a mix of history, sociology and graveyard-specific facts, and the tourists seem pleased. Our guide leads us from one chosen grave to the next, hitting highlights along the way.
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