St. Louis Cemetery #1

The "Real" Marie Laveau Tomb

Voodoo Priestess/Mambo Marie Laveau is supposedly buried in the St. Louis Cemetary #1 located on the corner of St. Louis Street and Basin Street. Several cemeteries claim to be the home of her tomb but this one is "the one" according to the lovely tour guide you see below. He explained that people thought she was buried in the tomb you see labeled as the supposed tomb but really it was just a name plate added to the tomb of one of her dead husbands. The tour guide also then told us that she was really buried in the tomb on the right and several of the people I was with claimed they could "feel her presence" when they touched the tomb. As you can see in the picture on the left of the "real" tomb there are many marks of XXX. Though this is illegal it is said that if you do so and make a wish she will grant it for you and you go back and circle your 3 x's. 

Maintenance man gone tour guide

Supposed tomb

XXX marks the spot... 

New Orleans being how it is, does not allow for bodies to be buried below the ground because we are below sea level and it just doesn't work out too well. That being said, our cemeteries are above ground and consist of tombs instead of headstones. Since the bodies are put in tombs there are no coffins so the bodies are placed in the tomb and is sealed in there for one year and a day. Because of the humidity and heat the tomb acts as a natural crematorium and the body is reduced to bones which can be pushed back to allow for another family member to be placed in the same tomb. 

From within a tomb