St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was laid out in 1789 under Spanish colonial rule, replacing an earlier burial ground that fires and disease had rendered inadequate. New Orleans' high water table made underground burial impractical, so the cemetery adopted the above-ground tombs and vaults that still define its look today — a style drawn from French and Spanish tradition as much as necessity.

The cemetery's most visited resident is Marie Laveau, the nineteenth-century "Voodoo Queen of New Orleans," whose family tomb has drawn pilgrims and curiosity-seekers for well over a century. Visitors once marked the tomb with X's in hopes she'd grant a wish, a practice that caused enough damage that the cemetery restricted access to licensed tour groups only in 2015.

That restriction has done little to dim the cemetery's reputation. Visitors describe sudden cold spots between the tombs, the sense of being watched along the narrow rows, and, often enough, a vague feeling of having been granted — or refused — whatever they came to ask for.