St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 — Marie Laveau's tomb, from outside

Louisiana · USA · Cemetery

We end outside the city's oldest surviving cemetery, laid out in 1789. Because the water table lies so high, the dead are buried above ground, in white tombs pressed close together, and for that reason the place is called the city of the dead. Some of New Orleans' best-known names rest here, among them the man behind the court case that once entrenched racial segregation in the United States. But one grave draws more visitors than all the others: the one said to belong to Marie Laveau, the city's famous voodoo queen of the nineteenth century.

Marie Laveau was a real woman, a free Creole and hairdresser who became one of the city's most powerful figures, feared and revered. Folklore says her spirit still moves among the tombs, and for years visitors drew three crosses on her grave in hope of a wish, until it was forbidden in order to protect the monument. We do not go in. We stop at the gates and look into the city of the dead in the darkness. Here your walk through New Orleans after nightfall ends, at a woman so powerful in life that the city refuses to let her die.

FAQ

Hvor ligger St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 — Marie Laveau's tomb, from outside?

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 — Marie Laveau's tomb, from outside ligger i Louisiana, USA.

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Image: John Durkin · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons