In New Orleans, the dead are placed in vaults above the ground. New Orleans is known for its "Cities of the Dead." In a New Orleans cemetery, you will often find beautiful ironwork decorating elaborate tombs built like houses, laid out as if on streets in any city. The city has to bury people above ground because the city is below sea level, so any coffin buried more than a few inches below ground will pop up and float. In early times, settlers tried weighting coffins down with stones in and on top of them, but after a rainstorm, the airtight coffin would pop right up. Even today, coffins rise from the ground during heavy flooding. After Hurricane Katrina, the dead were just as displaced as the living with coffins strewn through neighborhoods waiting to be reinterred.New Orleans cemeteries are also fascinating because of their architecture. The walls of the tombs are vaults stacked on top of each other. Often many family members are buried in one tomb. You can see dozens of names from the same family inscribed on the tomb and not nearly enough vaults to hold them all. As long as the last deceased person was buried more than 2 years ago, his remains can be moved to a special burial bag and put to the side or back of the vault, so the next one can take his place. The coffin is then destroyed. If someone dies during that 2-year waiting period, the body is held by the funeral home until the newest deceased can be moved into their final resting place after the 2-year restriction.
Instructions
1. See the earliest cemeteries, St. Louis numbers 1 and 2, near the French Quarter. Pirates, politicians and Marie Leveau are buried there. The "streets' between the tombs are crooked and jagged. The tombs are crumbled and off level. If you visit these cemeteries, do not go alone. These are in crime-filled neighborhoods and you can be mugged. Take a tour or go with many friends.
2. Drive to St. Roch Cemetery just off St. Claude about 6 blocks west on St. Roch. St. Roch lived during the middle ages and worked with plague sufferers. The cemetery is named after him because of a pledge made by a priest who prayed to him during the yellow fever crisis of 1868. It is said that those who pray to St. Roch will be able to stop using crutches or walkers. In the St. Roch Chapel, you can see crutches or canes or other protheses left by those who were supposedly cured.
3. Take the street car from Canal Street to Washington Avenue and walk 1 block toward the river. You will see Lafayette Cemetery No. I, located in the historic Garden District, one of the city's earliest aboveground burial sites. Lafayette No. I was designated a city burial site in 1833, and it has since been in continuous use. It was the city's first planned cemetery. After your tour, you could eat at arguably the finest restaurant in New Orleans, Commander's Palace, right across the street.
4. Drive out Canal Street to Gates of Prayer Cemetery. It is the oldest Jewish cemetery in New Orleans, founded in 1846. Find it at the corner of Canal and Bernadotte Streets. It contains many older tombstones with Hebrew inscriptions. There is also a tomb in the form of a lighthouse honoring a man who dedicated his life to the Lighthouse For The Blind, a charitable organization in New Orleans.
5. Travel to the end of Esplanade Street where you will see cemeteries on all sides. You will often see a tour bus parked in front of 3421 Esplanade, the St. Louis No. 3 cemetery. Established in 1854, it contains an outstanding Byzantine tomb and the final resting place of Storyville photographer Ernest Belloq. You may safely tour this cemetery without a tour.
6. Located at 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. and founded in 1872, Metairie Cemetery contains a Roman temple, an Egyptian Revival tomb and the memorials of the Army of Tennessee and the Army of Northern Virginia. There is an 85-foot tall monument with a great story behind it. Everyone in New Orleans knows the story of Faith, Hope, Charity & Mrs. Moriarty. Read the story at the link below (see Resources).
