One of the most significant issues that the early settlers of New Orleans encountered was where to bury their dead. The city’s swampy location has an exceptionally high water table, so when graves were dug, water quickly filled the holes. Caskets would float from their graves after heavy rains. The solution was not to bury the dead below ground, but rather inter their lost love ones in aboveground vaults. The result was beautiful cemeteries that have since come to be known as Cities of the Dead.
In New Orleans, there are 42 surviving historic cemeteries, with the oldest and most well-known being St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The cemetery was established in 1789 and remains in use over two hundred years later. Occupying only 300 square feet, a single city block, St. Louis No. 1 remains the final resting place for thousands, welcoming each new internment as the newest residents of the New Orleans’ cities of the dead.
