141 Best Sights in New Orleans, Louisiana

Cajun artist George Rodrigue began his career as a painter with moody yet stirring portraits of rural Cajun life, but he gained popular renown in 1984 when he started painting blue dogs, inspired by the spirit of his deceased pet, Tiffany. Since then, the blue dog can be found in thousands of manifestations in various settings in the cult artist's paintings. Rodrigue died in late 2013, and his principal gallery, a space rather eerily lined almost entirely with paintings of the blue dog, is now managed by his family as a gallery and event space.

Come to sample spirits named for—and inspired by—the city, like Bywater Bourbon, Irish Channel Whiskey, and the popular St. Roch Vodka. Tours include stories on the history of distilling in New Orleans and run for about 45 minutes. Visitors can book a tour and tasting online or take a seat at the cocktail bar and sample the liquors used in the bartender's tasty concoctions. You'll want to take a bottle or two home with you.

This 30,000-square-foot museum was designed to educate visitors on the vast amount of knowledge and art that has accrued around two near-obsessions in the South: eating and drinking. Exhibits feature information on fishermen, farmers, and chefs, as well as the many cultures that contribute to this region's tradition of cocktails and cuisine. There's a food gift shop and a tasting room with chef demonstrations; call ahead for updates, current exhibitions, and programs.

For a place to relax with a terrific view of the river, go to Spanish Plaza behind the former World Trade Center at 365 Canal Street. This large, sunken space with beautiful inlaid tiles and a fountain was a gift from Spain in 1976; here you can enjoy occasional live music and buy tickets for riverboat cruises in the offices that face the river. If you happen to be in town for Lundi Gras (the Monday before Mardi Gras), you can watch Rex, the King of Carnival, arrive here from across the river to greet King Zulu and take symbolic control of the city for a day.

Ursuline nuns donated the land for this church in 1841 and upon its completion in 1842, St. Augustine's became an integrated place of worship; the enslaved people were relegated to the side pews, but free blacks claimed just as much right to enter pews as whites did. The architect, J.N.B. de Pouilly, attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was known for his idiosyncratic style, which borrowed freely from a variety of traditions and resisted classification. Some of the ornamentation in his original drawings was eliminated when money ran out, but effusive pink-and-gold paint inside brightens the austere structure. The church grounds now also house the Tomb of the Unknown Slave, a monument dedicated in 2004 to the slaves buried in unmarked graves in the church grounds and surrounding areas. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Archdiocese of New Orleans planned to close seven churches in the city, including St. Augustine. Public outcry, the church's historical significance, and parishioners' dedication saved the parish, and its 10 am Sunday gospel-jazz services continue although fundraising efforts are still needed to mend the serious wear on the building. Tours are available by appointment. The cross made of chains outside the church is the The Tomb of the Unknown Slave, dedicated to the "nameless, faceless, turfless Africans who met an untimely death in Faubourg Tremé.

The Bywater neighborhood is home to dozens of alternative art spaces, many of which have banded together under the loose umbrella of the St. Claude Arts District (SCAD). From old candle factories to people's living rooms, this burgeoning scene—centered around St. Claude Avenue and nearby streets—produces some of the most intriguing and innovative work in the city, with several major artists and arts organizations. In addition to galleries, several independent theater spaces have sprung up as well, offering venues for live performances, magic and burlesque shows, fringe theater, and more. There is also a monthly art market and occasional gallery crawls. Check the website for an updated events calendar.

One block from the entrance to City Park, at the end of Esplanade Avenue, stands this cemetery, on an area of high ground along Bayou St. John. It opened in 1854 on the site of an old leper colony. Governor Galvez had exiled the lepers here during the yellow fever outbreak of 1853, but they were later removed to make room for the dead. The remains of Storyville photographer E. J. Bellocq are here, and the cemetery is notable for its neat rows of elaborate aboveground crypts, mausoleums, and carved stone angels. Many tour companies, including Save Our Cemeteries, offer tours that include St. Louis No. 3, but it's also perfectly safe to walk through and explore on your own.

A stark exterior gives way to a far more ornate interior in the first church built in the American sector of New Orleans, intended to provide the city's Irish Catholics with a place of worship as distinguished as the French St. Louis Cathedral. The vaulted interior was completed in 1840 by local architect James Gallier, who moved here from Ireland in 1834. High stained-glass windows and huge murals, painted in 1841, enrich the interior.

The busy red-light district that lasted in New Orleans from 1897 to 1917 has since been destroyed, and in its place stand federal housing projects still partially under renovation. Known as Storyvillle, (named after the neighborhood's creator Sidney Story), the area's splendid Victorian homes served as brothels and provided a venue for the raw sounds of ragtime and early jazz—an extremely young Louis Armstrong cut his teeth in some of the clubs here. The world's first electrically lighted saloon, Tom Anderson's House of Diamonds, was at the corner of Basin and Bienville streets, and the whole area has been the subject of many novels, songs, and films. In 1917, after several incidents involving naval officers, the government ordered the district shut down. Some buildings were razed almost overnight, but it would be years before federal funding would be available for the housing project in the 1930s. Only three structures from the Storyville era remain, all former saloons: Lulu White's Saloon ( 237 Basin Street), Joe Victor's Saloon ( St. Louis and Villere streets), and "My Place" Saloon ( 1214 Bienville Street). Currently, a historical marker on the "neutral ground" (median) of Basin Street is the only visible connection to Alderman Sidney Story's experiment in legalized prostitution. The area is a popular stop on many ghost tours, though what there is to see unfolds in the imagination.

Artist Brandan "BMike" Odums's larger-than-life graffiti murals and installations fill this 35,000-square-foot warehouse in an industrial nook of the Bywater, easy to spot thanks to its bright front exterior and giant mural of a young African American girl shrugging her arms up towards the sky. Work here excites and awakens viewers, with its themes on social justice, African American history, racial violence, and other contemporary issues in New Orleans and beyond. Check Brandan's website for more projects around town.

This was the family home of local architect Thomas Sully, who designed it in 1886. The Queen Anne--style home uses mixed surfaces, including cypress shingles and bricks, on the exterior. Sully was known for his use of deep shades of color and varied textures.

Dating to the 1830s, this Greek Revival cottage sits amid a plantationlike garden, surrounded by a copy of the original white-picket fence. Businessman Thomas Toby moved to New Orleans and had the house raised aboveground to protect it from flooding.

This small, home-grown museum is among many spots in Tremé where you'll get a chance to really dig into fascinating local history. Owner and enthusiastic jazz historian Al Jackson will lead you through his one-room, colorful collection of art, photographs, and memorabilia, providing insight on the origins of jazz and its place in the neighborhood. Located close to the New Orleans African American Museum and the Backstreet Cultural Museum, the location makes it easy to visit a couple Tremé museums in the same afternoon.

Next to Loyola on St. Charles Avenue, Tulane University's three original buildings face the avenue: Tilton Hall (1902) on the right, Gibson Hall (1894) in the middle, and Dinwiddie Hall (1923) on the left. The Romanesque style, with its massive stone composition and arches, is repeated in several buildings around the quad. More modern campus buildings extend another three blocks to the north, including Newcomb Art Museum, a 3,600-square-foot exhibition facility offering contemporary and historical exhibits (free; closed Sunday). Tulane offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees in liberal arts, science and engineering, architecture, business, law, social work, medicine, public health, and tropical medicine.

The Middle American Research Institute and Gallery ( 504/865–5110  mari.tulane.edu), located on the third floor of Tulane's Dinwiddie Hall, includes the world's largest documented Guatemalan textile collection and replicas of classic Mayan sculpture. Established in 1924, the institute's collection also includes rare artifacts like poison-dart arrows from Venezuela and shrunken heads from the Brazilian rain forest. On view at the gallery is "Faces of the Maya." The pre-Columbian artifacts are complemented by a collection of books on Latin American culture housed in Tulane's main library ( free  closed Sat. and Sun., appointment recommended).

Easily the fastest growing brewery in the region, Urban South sells its Holy Roller IPA (a juicy New England–style) and the extremely popular Paradise Park lager (a light beer adored for its colorful can design) all over town. Stop by the large warehouse taproom for more playful and interesting specials, with everything from triple and grapefruit IPAs to Juvie Juice, a hard iced tea collaboration with Rapper Juvenile. Keep an eye out for crawfish pop-ups during spring.

Built in 1869, this stately Italianate mansion served as the German consulate in the early 20th century, until the start of World War II. The house has been meticulously maintained and furnished with period pieces, and is now mainly a venue for private receptions and special events. Highlights include a carved-oak staircase and mantelpiece and 24-karat gilt moldings and sconces.

Priestess Miriam Chamani shares her traditional West African spiritual practices here, offering a more authentic experience than many of the tourist shops in the French Quarter. The priestess sells her own line of essential oils and voodoo dolls, as well as jewelry, sachets, incense, and books on voodoo, and is available to book for consultations and healings. Voodoo walking tours, like the New Orleans Spirit Tour ( www.neworleansspirittours.com), will often take visitors here.

This informative and visually stunning observatory on the top of the Four Seasons Hotel offers and indoor and outdoor observation decks overlooking the river. An art-filled gallery of touch screens deliver stories of New Orleans music, food, and Mardi Gras history, as well as original films that touch on Civil Rights history, the Mississippi River, and Hurricane Katrina.

This raised concrete area on the river side of Decatur Street, directly across from Jackson Square, is a great spot to photograph the square or the barges and paddle wheelers on the Mississippi. The cannon mounted in the center and pointing toward the river is a model 1861 Parrot Rifle used in the Civil War. This monument honors the local 141st Field Artillery of the Louisiana National Guard that saw action from the Civil War through World War II. Marble tablets at the base give the history of the group, represented today by the Washington Artillery Association.

This 16-acre stretch of green from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue overlooks the Mississippi River as it curves around New Orleans, inspiring the "Crescent City" moniker. The wooden promenade section in front of Jackson Square is called the Moon Walk, named for Mayor Moon Landrieu (father of more recent mayor Mitch Landrieu), under whose administration in the 1970s the riverfront beyond the flood wall was reopened to public view. Today, the French Quarter Festival's main stages are erected here every April. It's a great place for a rest (or a muffuletta sandwich or café au lait and beignet picnic) after touring the Quarter, and you'll often be serenaded by musicians and amused by street performers. The park is also home to art pieces including the modest Holocaust Memorial, with its spiral walkway clad in Jerusalem stone. At the center of the spiral are nine sculptural panels by Jewish artist Yaacov Agam. A statue of local businessman Malcolm Woldenberg, the park's benefactor, is located near Ocean Song; local artist John T. Scott's large kinetic sculpture's wind-powered movements are intended to evoke the patterns of New Orleans music.

This Greek Revival house, built in 1865, has an octagonal turret added in the late 19th century. The last private owner, Nettie Seebold, willed the estate to the Women's Guild in 1965. It's still furnished today with 18th- and 19th-century European and American pieces. Tours are available Monday through Wednesday, given on an ad hoc basis with no advance reservations required. In addition, walking tour companies will schedule a visit here as part of their tours.