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St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 near the French Quarter and Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District are closed. Unfortunately, we don't know when they will open again.
Mourning Customs Tour
3 Days Only!
Louisiana Landmarks Society and Save Our Cemeteries are hosting a special tour on 19th-century mourning and internment customs. Take a guided tour of the c. 1799 Pitot House while it is dressed in mourning and then walk over to St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 to view historic tombs and learn about the people inside them.
Tours are at 10 am or 2 pm
Friday, October 27
Saturday, October 28
Friday, November 3
Tickets (No Cocktail) $40.00
Tickets (Cocktail included) $45.00
Combo Tour of the Historic Pitot House and St. Louis Cemetery No. 3
Combo tour of the Pitot House and St. Louis Cemetery No. 3
2 hours | Thursdays and Fridays at 9 am
Start by touring one of the few West Indies-style houses remaining in Louisiana. Built in 1799 by Spanish merchant and ship owner, Bartholome Bosque, during the Spanish Colonial Period, The Pitot House has witnessed centuries of cultural history. Eleven families occupied the house; Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart used the home for a convent, and preservationists have cherished the building for its architectural beauty and historical significance. Then walk over to St. Louis Cemetery No. 3. This beautiful Catholic cemetery near tranquil Bayou St. John is an ideal place to stroll among the tombs as you learn about the burial customs of New Orleans and hear the real stories of the famous and infamous that fascinate the world and locals alike. St. Louis No. 3 is the final resting place of notable architect James Gallier, Storyville photographer E.J. Bellocq, and New Orleans chefs Leah Chase and Paul Prudhomme.
www.PitotHouse.org
BOOKING ALERT: There must be a minimum of 4 guests signed up to take this tour 12 hours before the departure time/date or the tour will be cancelled. If it is cancelled you will receive an email. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
Tips for the Guide are appreciated. Please review us on Google or Trip Advisor.
Fridays and Saturdays at 9 am
Tickets $45, Kids under 6: free
Stroll through Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery
Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery Tour
1.5 hours | Sundays at 10 am | Named by Forbes as one of ten of “America’s Best Cemeteries.”
The most stunning “city of the dead” is Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery. This picturesque cemetery boasts some of the grandest funerary architecture and sculpture in the US. Live oaks surround greek temples, gothic and Islamic style tombs, obelisks, and marble monuments with beautiful ironwork and stained glass.
The resting place of many of New Orleans' most influential and notorious citizens, Metairie Cemetery holds the graves of over 9,000 people on 65 landscaped acres. Nine Louisiana governors, seven New Orleans mayors, 49 kings of Carnival, and three Confederate generals rest alongside madams, brothel owners, bandleaders Louis Prima and Al Hirt, writer Anne Rice, and former Saints and Pelicans’ owner Tom Benson.
The cemetery was established in 1872 on a former horse racetrack and is the home of Save Our Cemeteries' annual Run Through History race fundraiser for the preservation and restoration of New Orleans Cemeteries.
BOOKING ALERT: There must be a minimum of 4 guests signed up to take this tour 12 hours before the departure time/date or the tour will be cancelled. If it is cancelled you will receive an email. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
This is an easy walk. Wheelchair accessible. Tips for the Guide are appreciated. Please review us on Google or Trip Advisor.
Sundays at 10 am
Tickets $25, Kids under 6: free.
Tour St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 near City Park
St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 Tour
1.5 hours | Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10 am
Just a short walk from City Park is St. Louis Cemetery No.3, on stately Esplanade Avenue. This beautiful Catholic cemetery near tranquil Bayou St. John is an ideal place to stroll among the tombs as you learn about the burial customs of New Orleans and hear the real stories of the famous and infamous that fascinate the world and locals alike. St. Louis No. 3 is the final resting place of notable architect James Gallier, Storyville photographer E.J. Bellocq, and New Orleans chefs Leah Chase and Paul Prudhomme.
BOOKING ALERT: There must be a minimum of 4 guests signed up to take this tour 12 hours before the departure time/date or the tour will be cancelled. If it is cancelled you will receive an email. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
This is an easy walk. Wheelchair accessible. Tips for the Guide are appreciated. Please leave us a review on Trip Advisor and/or Google.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10 am
Tickets: $25 Kids under 6: FREE
Tour St. Roch Cemetery
St. Roch Cemetery Tour
1.5 hours | Mondays, Saturdays, and the first Friday of every month at 10 am
Now is your chance to tour one of the least visited but most popular cemeteries in New Orleans.
St. Roch Cemetery, founded in 1874, was established by the Rev. Peter Leonard Thevis. According to legend, during the deadly outbreak of yellow fever in 1868, Rev. Thevis prayed to St. Roch, the Patron Saint of Good Health, and vowed to build a chapel to the Saint if his congregation was spared. When no one died, a shrine and a chapel were built. The locals continued to revere St. Roch for graces of welfare and remission. For decades, believers left their polio braces, glass eyes, dental plates, and other parts of their prosthetic selves when their health was recovered. These are on view in the chapel which is ONLY open on the first Friday of each month from 11:00 am to noon. Tour with us on this day, to see inside.
This cemetery was truly neighborhood-centric. With a large population of working-class Germans and French, it was a focal point of the community for both religious and social events.
St. Roch Cemetery is unique in that it has the Stations of the Cross depicted with statuary carved in Italy by the workshop of Italian sculptor Enrico Arrighini. An annual procession of the 14 stations is still celebrated every year on Good Friday.
If you take the tour on the first Friday of the month, you will be able to see the beautiful, recently restored chapel. For decades, believers have been leaving their polio braces, glass eyes, dental plates, and other parts of their prosthetic selves as an offering to St. Roch. The resulting assortment of anatomical ex-votos, vintage medical artifacts, and religious iconography has made the Saint Roch Shrine one of the most unusual in America.
BOOKING ALERT: There must be a minimum of 4 guests signed up to take this tour 12 hours before the departure time/date or the tour will be cancelled. If it is cancelled you will receive an email. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
This is an easy walk. Wheelchair accessible. Tips for the Guide are appreciated. Please leave us a review on Trip Advisor and/or Google.
Mondays and Saturdays at 10 am, the first Friday of each month when the chapel is open, also at 10 am
Tickets: $25 Kids under 6: FREE
Greenwood Cemetery is closed to tours until further notice
Greenwood Cemetery at the end of Canal Street
1.5 hours | Fridays and Saturdays at 10 am
If you want a tour that encapsulates New Orleans burial traditions, then this is the tour for you. This cemetery has it all - single-family tombs, coping tombs, society tombs, tumulous tombs, wall vaults, and the largest collection of cast-iron tombs in New Orleans. Hear the history of them all as well as some tidbits about those buried there. It's an easy ride on the Canal St. "Cemeteries" streetcar to the end where you will head to Morning Call Coffee to enjoy a New Orleans cafe au lait while you wait to meet your guide. Greenwood Cemetery is a short walk across the street.
BOOKING ALERT: There must be a minimum of 4 guests signed up to take this tour 12 hours before the departure time/date or the tour will be cancelled. If it is cancelled you will receive an email. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
This is an easy walk. Wheelchair accessible. Tips for the Guide are appreciated. Please review us on Google and/or Trip Advisor.
Fridays and Saturdays at 10 am
Tickets $25, Kids under 6: free.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
BOOKING ALERT: There must be a minimum of 4 guests signed up to take this tour 12 hours before the departure time/date or the tour will be cancelled. If it is cancelled you will receive an email. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
- Tours typically last one and a half hours. Please allow at least two hours to take our tours.
- All tours leave on time, rain or shine.
- Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the tour begins, as our tour guides start their tours promptly at the scheduled times. DO NOT rely on the streetcars (trolleys) to run on time. You may be late and/or miss the tour.
- Suggested items to bring: bottled water, sunscreen, comfortable shoes, hats, and umbrellas (to protect from rain and provide shade).
- Please reserve your spot in advance. In busy months, tours can fill up quickly. On the other hand, if no one is signed up or there are less than 4 people signed up, the tour will be canceled. If you are booking online please reserve at least two hours before the tour begins. Otherwise, call 504-525-3377 to book.
- New Orleans' Cemeteries are sacred grounds. They are "active", and funerals may occur during the tour. Proper respect is requested.
- Marking a tomb is an act of vandalism and desecration of a gravesite. In addition to breaking the law and causing physical damage, the vandalism of any tomb or gravesite is extremely disrespectful to the families associated with the tomb and to the deceased themselves. Marking and scratching into the stucco causes permanent damage to the exterior and increases the structural vulnerability of a tomb. Removing brick pieces from other tombs to use as markers can completely destroy what is left of an already crumbling tomb. SOC asks that if you see vandalism occurring in any of the cemeteries, please photograph the tomb if possible and contact SOC and/or the cemetery owner/operators to report the activity.
