Cemeteries of New Orleans

As someone who has a fascination with old historic cemeteries, New Orleans was a phenomenal place to visit. I could have spent days just wandering the dozens of old cemeteries in the area. As it was I enjoyed two of them and learned a bit about the history of above ground tombs.  
The first cemetery in New Orleans Saint Peters was established in 1721 in the French Quarter, it began with above ground graves. However it did not take long to discover that the high water table, heavy rains, and flooding lead to caskets making their way to the surface. Numerous tricks were tried to keep the caskets underground, to include drilling holes and placing heavy rocks but none kept  all of the dead buried.In the 1780’s the Spanish government decided it was time to start another burial ground and the cities  first above ground cemetery St. Louis  Cemetery 1 was created, bearing a strong resemblance to Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris France. By this time, the colonists had realized that the water table was too high to continue to try to bury their dead underground and they developed the above ground cemeteries that are seen all around the city today.  By the 1800,’s the St Peter cemetery was closed and much to the Catholic churches dismay many of the bodies were left right where they were with the ground above them being sold and building put top of the bodies. As late as 2010 15 coffins were found in a French Quarter backyard during construction of a pool.  At any time in any place, you could literally be walking over bodies buried underneath the streets of the French Quarter. No wonder it is said to be one of the most haunted place in the United States.

St. Louis  Cemetery 1 is  believed to be the burial place of Marie Laveau the famous Voodoo Queen. Numerous stories of haunting at St. Louis  Cemetery 1 circulate with tales of her ghost moving amongst the tombs and even that she may appear as a phantom cat that has been seen to disappear into her sealed mausoleum. Today you can no longer walk though this cemetery unaccompanied, instead you must go with a tour group, This is due in part to the ongoing vandalism that has happened within the cemetery walls. For many years tourist would come, make a wish on Marie Laveau’s tomb, mark it with three red crosses and sometimes leave offering at the door of the mausoleum. Today if you want to leave an offering you can go to Marie Laveau’s voodoo shop where an alter is set up for that very purpose.

Marie Laveau tomb

New Orleans cemeteries are often called cities of the dead, perhaps because the mausoleums looks like buildings and there are streets running among them. These mausoleums can be used to bury many generations of families. When one dies the body is placed inside the tomb, because of the extreme heat the body decomposes quickly and within a year and a day only bones are left at that time the tomb can be opened back up, the casket removed, the bones moves to a corner of the mausoleum and another casket placed inside. Interestingly if a second family member dies before the year and a day is up the cemeteries have “rental” spaces that the body may be stored until it can be moved to the family tomb.

We noticed that the tombs come in a variety of sizes and shapes, some small and others large and elaborate, it is definitely a must do to pick a cemetery or two to spend an afternoon in should you find yourself in New Orleans.