Haunted St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans: Marie Laveau and the City of the Dead

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 sits just outside the French Quarter on Basin Street. Behind its walls is a maze of above-ground family tombs and wall vaults, some freshly whitewashed, many crumbling, packed so tightly into one city block that Mark Twain’s name for New Orleans cemeteries, ‘cities of the dead’, fits it perfectly.

It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of the most famous haunted places in America, mostly because of one tomb: the Glapion family vault where Marie Laveau is believed to be buried. This guide covers the history, the ghost stories that have grown up around Laveau and others, and the strict rules for visiting, which have changed since 2015. Our older guide described a wish ritual of marking X’s on her tomb; that is now forbidden and damages the tomb.

History of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

New Orleans first buried its dead in the St. Peter Street cemetery, close to the original town. After the Great Fire of 1788 destroyed much of the city, and with epidemics filling the old ground, the Spanish colonial government established a new cemetery just outside the town by royal decree on August 14, 1789. It is the oldest of the city’s cemeteries that can still be visited.

The tombs are above ground because of the city’s high groundwater. Families built vaults of plastered brick that were used again and again over generations, which is how one block came to hold more than 700 tombs and, by most estimates, more than 100,000 people. The cemetery was divided into sections for Catholics, non-Catholics and enslaved people, and it filled fast during the yellow fever epidemics of the 1800s.

Among those buried here is Homer Plessy, whose challenge to segregated railroad cars led to the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson. In 2010 the actor Nicolas Cage bought a plot and built a white pyramid as his future tomb, an odd modern note among the 18th- and 19th-century vaults. Scenes from Easy Rider and Interview with the Vampire were filmed among the tombs.

By the 2010s, years of tourism had taken a toll. On December 17, 2013, someone painted Marie Laveau’s tomb pink with latex paint, which had to be removed because it would trap moisture in the old plaster. The Archdiocese and the nonprofit Save Our Cemeteries spent about three months in 2014 restoring the tomb, rebuilding its roof and replastering it, while visitors kept scratching X’s into the fresh plaster. On March 1, 2015, the Archdiocese closed the cemetery to the general public, allowing entry only to families with a pass and to licensed tour guides.

The ghosts of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Marie Laveau

Marie Laveau was born in New Orleans in 1801 and died on June 15, 1881, aged 79; popular accounts often say 1794, but records point to 1801. She was the city’s most famous Voodoo priestess, and she is generally believed to rest in plot 347, the Glapion family tomb, though the writer Robert Tallant disputed it.

Oral tradition says people saw her in the city after her death. The cemetery stories describe a woman in a red and white head wrap, a tignon, walking the aisles and vanishing; visitors who follow her say she disappears around a tomb. Some say she mutters a curse at those who disrespect her grave, or scratches and pinches them, and one rumor says she appears as a black cat with red eyes. All of this is legend.

The wish ritual

For generations, visitors drew three X’s on the tomb, turned around three times, knocked and made a wish, and came back to circle the X’s and leave an offering if it was granted. That ritual is why the tomb was so badly damaged. Today marking or leaving anything on any tomb is forbidden, and guides will stop you.

Henry Vignes

The most repeated ghost story after Laveau’s is that of Henry Vignes, a 19th-century sailor who left his family tomb’s papers with the keeper of his boarding house when he went to sea. She sold the tomb. Vignes died soon after he came home and was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave. His ghost, the story goes, still walks the aisles asking visitors where the Vignes tomb is, and one ghost tour company claims an EVP of a man saying ‘I need to rest.’

Alphonse

Another lost soul, Alphonse, is said to take visitors’ hands and ask them to help him find his way home. He reportedly gathers flowers from other graves for his own tomb, and warns people away from the Pinead family tomb before crying and vanishing. No one has identified a real Alphonse, which is part of the story’s appeal.

Soldiers and fever victims

Visitors also describe soldiers in uniform among the tombs and the spirits of yellow fever victims. With thousands of epidemic dead in the ground here, it is the most understandable of the cemetery’s stories.

Where to look

• The Glapion family tomb: Marie Laveau’s believed resting place, always a stop on the official tour.
• The narrow aisles toward the back: where the woman in the head wrap is said to walk.
• The wall vaults: the ‘oven’ vaults lining the walls, among the oldest burials.
• Homer Plessy's tomb and the Cage pyramid: for history and a curiosity.

Visiting St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

You cannot walk in on your own. Since March 2015 the cemetery is open only on official guided tours, run by locally licensed guides on behalf of New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries, with a limited number of visitors each day and groups of no more than about 20. Families with loved ones buried here can apply for a pass.

Tours last about 45 minutes and start from the Cemetery Tour Desk at the Basin St. Station visitor center, 501 Basin St., across the street. Arrive 15 minutes early to collect your gate pass and wristband. Prices in 2025 and 2026 ran from about $25 to $33 for adults, with day tours from around 9 a.m. and some evening tours. Book ahead; same-day tours often sell out. There is paid parking next door.

The rules are strict: do not touch, sit on or lean against tombs or fences, do not mark or rub them, and do not leave candles, coins, flowers or anything else. No food, and no pets except service animals. The official tours are history tours; there is no ghost hunting here, and most French Quarter ghost walks tell the cemetery’s stories from outside the walls.

• Visiting Entry only on official guided tours (families with a pass excepted)
• Tours Official walking tours of about 45 minutes, from Basin St. Station, 501 Basin St.
• Tickets About $25 to $33 per adult
• Ghost hunting No ghost hunting; tours are history tours with strict rules

Tips for your visit

• Book the first tour of the morning for cooler air and smaller crowds.
• Wear shoes with grip: the paths are uneven and the tombs close together.
• Bring a covered water bottle in summer.
• Leave nothing on Marie Laveau’s tomb; the best offering is respect.

More haunted places nearby

• The LaLaurie Mansion: the most haunted house in the French Quarter
• Lafayette Cemetery No. 1: the Garden District cemetery, reopened in October 2026
• Haunted hotels in New Orleans: stay the night in a haunted room
• Haunted places in Louisiana
• Haunted places in New Orleans

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: St. Louis Cemetery
• Wikipedia: Marie Laveau
• Tripster: St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 official walking tour
• Carltonauts Travel Tips: Tour St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (2025)
• Ghost City Tours: The ghosts of St. Louis Cemetery
• Legends of America: Haunted Cities of the Dead