St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
Established in 1789 just beyond the old city limits, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest surviving cemetery in New Orleans, its single square block crowded with whitewashed above-ground tombs that hold tens of thousands of the dead. Among them lies the Laveau-Glapion family vault, believed to be the resting place of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, who died in 1881 and to whose tomb devotees have made daily pilgrimages and left offerings ever since. Visitors and tour guides have long reported the apparition of Laveau herself moving among the crypts in her red-and-white turban, and tell of those who mocked her faith being scratched, pinched, or shoved to the ground. Others describe a figure in white drifting between the vaults, disembodied voices, and the sudden, unaccountable chill that the cemetery's hundreds of restless dead are said to leave behind. Since 2015 the Archdiocese has gated the grounds, admitting only licensed tours into the maze of tombs.
📍 425 Basin Street, New Orleans, LA 70112, New Orleans, LA · Get directions