French, Spanish, African, Caribbean and finally American: New Orleans mixed it all, and from that mixture jazz was born. Twelve stops from the beignet café, by way of the square of the baroness who was shot, the Cabildo of the Louisiana Purchase, the mansion with the attic of horrors, the house of the voodoo queen, Preservation Hall, Congo Square, the church of Tremé, the Storyville red-light district, the cemetery of above-ground tombs, Canal Street and the Garden District that Hurricane Katrina did not flood. Approximate audio duration: 24 minutes.
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Nueva Orleans: vudú, jazz y la ciudad más mestiza de América
Francesa, española, africana, caribeña y finalmente estadounidense: Nueva Orleans mezcló todo y de esa mezcla nació el jazz. Doce paradas desde el café de los beignets, por la plaza de la baronesa baleada, el Cabildo de la compra de Luisiana, la mansión del ático del horror, la casa de la reina del vudú, Preservation Hall, Congo Square, la iglesia de Tremé, el barrio rojo de Storyville, el cementerio de las tumbas sobre la tierra, Canal Street y el Garden District que el huracán Katrina no inundó. Duración aproximada de audio: 24 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~24 min of audio · 4.5 km on foot (~1 h 10 min walking) · about 1 h 45 min in total
You are in front of Café du Monde, on Decatur Street. Look at the green and white striped awning, the crowded tables, the plates of beignets, square fritters buried under a mountain of powdered sugar. If you sit down, you will end up with sugar even on your shoes.
This café opened in 1862, beside the French Market, which has operated on this spot since the late eighteenth century. Before that, Native peoples already traded on this bank of the Mississippi.
Order a café au lait and notice the taste: it is coffee mixed with roasted chicory root. The custom came from France and took root here du…
2
The Baroness of the Four Bullets
You are in Jackson Square. Look at the statue of a general on horseback in the middle of the garden, behind it St. Louis Cathedral with its three spires, and on either side long red-brick buildings with wrought-iron balconies.
In French and Spanish times this was the Place d'Armes: military parades, ceremonies, and also public executions. The condemned were hanged here in front of the whole city.
The statue is of Andrew Jackson, who in January 1815 defeated a British army on the outskirts of New Orleans. The odd thing is that the war was already over: the peace treaty had been signed weeks e…
3
A French Quarter Built by Spaniards
You are in front of the Cabildo. Look at the two-story building with arches on the ground floor and a sloping roof on top. It was the seat of the city's Spanish government, the Very Illustrious Cabildo, and it was built in the 1790s.
A fact that surprises almost everyone: the French Quarter has hardly any French buildings. In 1788 a fire destroyed hundreds of houses, and in 1794 another swept away what was left. At that time the city was Spanish. The houses were rebuilt the Spanish way: brick, inner courtyards, iron grilles and balconies. What you see around you is, largely, Spanish colonial …
4
Madame LaLaurie's Attic
You are at the corner of Royal Street and Governor Nicholls, in front of the LaLaurie Mansion. Look at the three-story grey house, with its iron balcony and carved door. It is elegant, restrained. And it is the most feared house in New Orleans.
In the 1830s Delphine LaLaurie lived here, a woman of Creole high society, famous for her parties. She had enslaved people in her service, like almost every rich family in the city.
On 10 April 1834 a fire broke out in the kitchen. According to testimony from the time, it was set by the cook, an enslaved woman chained to the stove, who preferred to di…
5
The Voodoo Queen
You are on St. Ann Street, at the place where Marie Laveau lived. Look at the low Creole-style cottage, with tall doors and shutters. The original house is gone, but this was her plot for decades.
Marie Laveau was born around 1801. She was a free woman of color: that was what New Orleans called people of African descent who were not enslaved. She was a hairdresser to the city's wealthy ladies. And while doing their hair she heard all their secrets.
She was also the most famous voodoo priestess in the city's history. New Orleans voodoo mixes religions from West Africa, Catholicism and Caribbe…
6
The Cornetist No One Recorded
You are in front of Preservation Hall, on St. Peter Street. Look at the peeling facade, the worn wooden door, the small sign. From outside it looks abandoned. Inside, every night, traditional jazz is played in a small room, with no alcohol and no stage, the audience sitting on the floor.
It opened in 1961, when New Orleans jazz seemed doomed to disappear, to give work to the veteran musicians who had played it all their lives.
Jazz was born in this city at the start of the twentieth century. African rhythms mixed with the hymns of Black churches, country blues, military brass band marches, t…
7
Sundays in the Square
You are in Congo Square, inside Louis Armstrong Park. Look at the round brick plaza beneath the oaks, the circles drawn on the ground. It looks like a quiet corner of a park. It is one of the most important places in the history of music.
In French and Spanish New Orleans, enslaved people customarily had Sundays off. From the late eighteenth century they gathered here, on what was then open ground on the edge of town.
In the afternoon hundreds of people formed circles. They played drums made from barrels and hides, banjos, gourds, and danced African dances. They sold fruit, vegetables and fo…
8
The War of the Pews
You are in front of St. Augustine Church, in the Tremé neighborhood. Look at the simple white facade with its bell tower. Next to the church, look for a cross made of iron chains: it is the Tomb of the Unknown Slave.
Tremé is one of the oldest African American neighborhoods in the United States. Many of its houses already belonged, in the nineteenth century, to free people of color: craftsmen, musicians, merchants, property owners.
This church opened in 1842. When the pews were put up for sale, as was then done to finance churches, free families of color bought many of them. White parishione…
9
Storyville
You are on Basin Street, in front of the low public housing blocks that occupy the area opposite. Look closely, because almost nothing is left. For twenty years, the most famous and scandalous neighborhood in the United States stood here: Storyville.
In 1897 the city decided to confine prostitution to a few blocks beside this street, to remove it from the rest of New Orleans. The idea came from an alderman named Sidney Story, who ended up giving the district his name, much to his dismay.
For two decades Storyville was legal. There were luxury brothels with mirrors and pianos, and miserable s…
10
A Year and a Day
You are at the entrance to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the oldest in the city, from 1789. Look at the tombs: almost none are underground. They are little white houses of brick and plaster, with roofs, doors and crosses, crammed together along narrow lanes. That is why they are called cities of the dead.
There is a practical reason: New Orleans is built on a swamp, and much of the city lies below the level of the river. Dig a little and water appears. In the early days, buried coffins floated up after the rains. The Spanish custom of wall-vault tombs also played a part.
Family tombs are reused.…
11
The Neutral Ground
You are on Canal Street. Look at the extremely wide avenue, the palm trees, the red streetcar running down the middle. On one side, the French Quarter; on the other, the business district with its tall buildings.
It is called Canal Street because it was going to have a canal. It was never built. But this avenue became a border.
After 1803 thousands of English-speaking, Protestant, ambitious Americans arrived in New Orleans. The Catholic French and Spanish Creoles viewed them with suspicion. The newcomers settled on the other side of this avenue. For decades the city practically had two separ…
12
The Sliver by the River
You are in the Garden District, beside Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. Look at the mansions with white columns and iron galleries, the gardens, the enormous oaks hung with grey moss. It is the neighborhood of the nineteenth century's rich Americans, who did not want to live among Creoles.
They grew rich on the cotton and sugar of the Mississippi valley, grown by enslaved people. New Orleans was the largest slave market in the United States before the Civil War. These houses were paid for by that economy.
Now look at the ground. You are in one of the highest parts of the city, on the strip of land …
How long does the "New Orleans: Voodoo, Jazz and America's Most Mixed City" audio tour take?
It has about 24 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 4.5 km walking route (~1 h 10 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "Sugar, Chicory and Blockade" (coordinates 29.9576, -90.0618). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open New Orleans and pick "New Orleans: Voodoo, Jazz and America's Most Mixed City". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
