139 Best Sights in New Orleans, Louisiana

The imposing building that takes up the whole block of Royal Street between St. Louis and Conti streets is the Old New Orleans Court, erected in 1908. Later, it became the office of the Wildlife and Fisheries agency. After years of vacancy and neglect, the magnificent edifice was restored and reopened in 2004 and is now the elegant home of the Louisiana Supreme Court. The public can visit the courthouse but must pass through security and cannot take photos inside.

Established in 1891, this ponderous stone building is the oldest museum in Louisiana and features heavy trusses, gleaming cypress paneling, and elaborate Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It houses a collection of artifacts from the Civil War, including uniforms, flags, soldiers' personal effects, and a rudimentary hand grenade.

Chartered by the Jesuits in 1912, Loyola University is a local landmark. Its communications, music, and law programs are world-renowned. The Gothic- and Tudor-style Marquette Hall, facing St. Charles Avenue and Audubon Park, provides the backdrop for a quintessential New Orleans photo opportunity. The fourth floor of the neo-Gothic J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library houses the university’s Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery, open to the public seven days a week (Monday–Saturday 10 am–6 pm, Sunday noon–6 pm).

Also called the "Jockey's Mansion," this massive, three-story Italianate mansion is a neighborhood landmark (and now a popular setting for Hollywood film crews). Designed by the prominent New Orleans architect James Gallier Jr., it was built in 1865 for Florence A. Luling, whose family had made a fortune selling turpentine to Union soldiers when they occupied New Orleans during the Civil War. When the Louisiana Jockey Club took over the Creole Race Course (now the Fair Grounds) in 1871, they purchased the mansion and used it as a clubhouse for the next 20-odd years. It is not open to the public.

Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the final day of Carnival, a Christian holiday season that begins on the Twelfth Night of Christmas (January 6) and comes crashing to a halt on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Though Mardi Gras is merely one day within the season, the term is used interchangeably with Carnival, especially as the season builds toward the big day. As sometimes befalls the Christmas holiday, the religious associations of Carnival serve mainly as a pretext for weeks of indulgence. Likewise, Carnival claims elaborate traditions of food, drink, and music, as well as a blend of public celebrations (parades) and more exclusive festivities, which take the form of lavish private balls.

On Mardi Gras, many New Orleanians don costumes, face paint, and masks, and then take to the streets for the last hurrah before Lent. It's an official city holiday, with just about everyone but the police and bartenders taking the day off. People roam the streets, drink Bloody Marys for breakfast and switch to beer in the afternoon, and admire one another's finery. Ragtag bands ramble about with horns and drums, Mardi Gras anthems pour from stereos, and king cakes (ring-shaped cakes topped with purple, green, and gold sugar) are everywhere. Weeks of parades are capped by Zulu, Rex, and the "trucks" parades that roll from Uptown to downtown with large floats carrying riders who throw plastic beads and trinkets (called "throws") to onlookers.

Don't be smug: If you visit, you'll be caught up in the revelry of America's largest street party. After a few moments of astonished gaping, you'll yell for throws, too, draping layers of beads around your neck, sipping from a plastic "go cup" as you prance along the street, dancing with the marching bands, and having a grand old time.

Home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome has been the site of many Sugar Bowls, several NCAA Final Four basketball tournaments, the BCS championship game, a record seven Super Bowls, and the 1988 Republican National Convention, as well as many concerts.

The Superdome was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, when it served as a shelter of last resort for evacuees. The stadium underwent extensive renovations in the years that followed and reopened for football in September 2006, when the Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons, at the time setting a record for the largest TV audience in ESPN history.

Built in 1975, the Superdome seats 71,000 people, and has a 166,000-square-foot main arena and a roof that covers almost 10 acres at a height of 27 stories. The bronze statue on the Poydras Street side of the Superdome is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Across from it is a large abstract sculpture called Krewe of Poydras. The sculptor, Ida Kohlmeyer, meant to evoke the frivolity and zany spirit of Mardi Gras. A couple of blocks down Poydras Street from the Superdome is the Bloch Cancer Survivors Monument, a block-long walkway of whimsical columns, figures, and a triumphal arch in the median of Loyola Avenue. The Smoothie King Center (formerly called the New Orleans Arena) behind the Superdome is home to the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans.

The Superdome does not offer public tours, but visitors can walk along the exterior plaza and Champions Square to get a better view. The plaza by Champions Square offers the best photo opportunity.

One of New Orleans's most beloved artists, James Michalopoulos exhibits his expressionistic visions of New Orleans architecture in this small gallery. Michalopoulos's palette-knife technique of applying thick waves of paint invariably evokes van Gogh—but his vision of New Orleans, where no line is truly straight and every building appears to have a soul, is uniquely his own. His work has become a prized adornment of many a New Orleanian's walls. Michalopoulos was commissioned to create the official poster of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1998, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2013,bringing a new perspective to some of New Orleans's greatest musicians like Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Dr. John, Fats Domino, and Aaron Neville.

The widow Amélie Miltenberger built this row of three picturesque brick town houses in the 1830s for her three sons. Her daughter Alice Heine became famous for wedding Prince Albert of Monaco. Although the marriage ended childless and in divorce, Princess Alice was a sensation in New Orleans.

This former private house serves as the most elegant public library in New Orleans. Built in 1907, the Italianate beaux-arts mansion was once the home of the silent-movie star Marguerite Clark. The Latter family bought it and donated it to the city as a library in 1948 in memory of their son, who was killed in World War II. An extensive renovation restored the home to its former grandeur.

When facing the river with the French Quarter at your back, you will see, to your right, the Crescent City Connection, a twin-span bridge between downtown New Orleans and the West Bank, and a ferry that crosses the river every 30 minutes. The river flows to the left downstream for another 100 miles until it merges with the Gulf of Mexico. Woldenberg Riverfront Park and Spanish Plaza are prime territory for watching everyday life along the Mississippi: steamboats carrying tour groups, tugboats pushing enormous barges, and oceangoing ships. Directly across the river from the Quarter are the ferry landing and a dry dock for ship repair.

This Italianate house was built by impressionist Edgar Degas's maternal uncle, Michel Musson—a rare Creole inhabitant of the predominantly American Garden District. Musson had moved to his Esplanade Street residence before Degas visited New Orleans, so it's unlikely the artist ever stayed at this address. A subsequent owner added the famous "lace" iron galleries.

See free demonstrations of printmaking, glassmaking and design, and silver alchemy in this restored, 1800s-era brick warehouse (with a whopping 25,000-square-foot interior). The studio offers group and individual classes. Call in advance to make reservations for hands-on instruction. A shop and gallery display and sell the finished products.

This homegrown museum may turn skeptics into believers. Voodoo isn't just something marketed to visitors; it lingers on in the lives of many New Orleanians, who still light candles for good luck or rely on a potion to find love. The large collection of artifacts on display here include portraits by and of voodoo legends, African artifacts believed to have influenced the development of the religion, and lots of gris-gris (African and Caribbean amulets). The gift shop sells customized gris-gris, potions, and handcrafted voodoo dolls. A psychic reader is on duty to divine your future.

Don't let the four-letter word at the center of its name intimidate you—one need not be a jazz fanatic to love the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. "Jazz Fest," as it's more commonly known, is a sprawling, rollicking celebration of Louisiana music, food, and culture held the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May. It takes place at the city's historic Fair Grounds Race Course, which reverberates with the sounds of rock, Cajun, zydeco, gospel, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, folk, world music, country, Latin, and, yes, traditional and modern jazz. Throw in world-class arts and crafts, exhibitions and lectures, and an astounding range of Louisiana-made food—alone reason enough for many Jazz Fest fans to make the trek—and you've got a festival worthy of America's premier party town. Over the years, Jazz Fest lineups have come to include internationally known performers, but at its heart the festival is about the hundreds of Louisiana musicians who live, work, and cut their chops in the Crescent City. The festival is an important showcase for local musicians, introducing them to fans around the world. For a peek at the schedule of featured artists, visit the festival website.

In 1987 the U.S. Congress declared jazz a "national American treasure," and shortly thereafter the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park was created to educate people about the art form and to preserve its history. The park hosts free performances and educational events in two locations around the French Quarter: the Visitor Center and the Old U.S. Mint, which also houses the state's jazz collection. Some of the park's rangers are also working musicians; don't miss the chance to catch their lively and informative demonstrations exploring the full range of Louisiana's musical heritage.

This gallery space features a number of established, mid-career, and emerging local and international artists who work in a variety of media. The gallery also shows works by 20th-century masters such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Alex Katz.

The Ursulines were the first of many orders of religious women who came to New Orleans and founded schools, orphanages, and asylums, and ministered to the needs of the poor. The original tract of land for a convent, school, and gardens covered several French Quarter blocks. The current structure, which replaced the original convent, was completed in 1752 and is now the oldest French-colonial building in the Mississippi Valley, having survived the disastrous 18th-century fires that destroyed the rest of the Quarter. St. Mary's Church, adjoining the convent, was added in 1845. Now an archive for the archdiocese, the convent was used by the Ursulines for 90 years. The Ursuline Academy, a girls' school founded in 1727, is now Uptown on State Street, where a newer convent and chapel were built. The academy is the oldest girls' school in the country. The Old Ursuline Convent is open to the public for self-guided tours Monday through Saturday.

In the early 1800s, the wooden-rail balcony extending over Orleans Street was linked to a ballroom where free women of color met their French suitors—as Madame John of "Madame John's Legacy" is said to have done. The quadroons (technically, people whose racial makeup was one-quarter African) who met here were young, unmarried women of legendary beauty. A gentleman would select a favorite and, with her mother's approval, buy her a house and support her as his mistress. The sons of these unions, which were generally maintained in addition to legal marriages with French women, were often sent to France to be educated. This practice, known as plaçage, was unique to New Orleans at the time. The ballroom later became part of a convent and school for the Sisters of the Holy Family, a religious order founded in New Orleans in 1842 by the daughter of a quadroon to educate and care for African American women. The ballroom itself is not open to visitors, but a view of the balcony from across the street is enough to set the historical stage.

This sumptuous mansion was built in 1868 as a wedding gift from Colonel William Lewis Wynn to his daughter. The side building, on the Uptown side of the main building, is an auditorium added in the 1950s. The house is closed to the public, but serves as headquarters to a ladies' social club and hosts many debutante teas and wedding receptions.

One of the few surviving houses that lined the bayou in the late 1700s, and the only Creole colonial–style country house in the city open to the public, Pitot House is named for James Pitot, who bought the property in 1810 as a country home for his family. In addition to being one of the city's most prosperous merchants, Pitot served as New Orleans mayor from 1804 to 1805, the city's first after the Louisiana Purchase, and later as parish court judge. The Pitot House was restored and moved 200 feet to its current location in the 1960s to make way for the expansion of Cabrini High School. It is noteworthy for its stuccoed brick-and-post construction, an example of which is exposed on the second floor. The house is typical of the West Indies style brought to Louisiana by early colonists, with galleries around the house that protect the interior from both rain and sunshine. There aren't any interior halls to stifle ventilation, and the doors are lined up with one another to encourage a cross breeze. The house is furnished with period antiques from the United States, including special pieces from Louisiana.

Baroness Micaela Pontalba built this twin set of town houses, one on each side of Jackson Square, around 1850; they are known for their ornate cast-iron balcony railings. Baroness Pontalba's father was Don Almonester, who sponsored the rebuilding of the St. Louis Cathedral in 1788. The strong-willed Miss Almonester also helped fund the landscaping of the square and the erection of the Andrew Jackson statue at its center. The Pontalba Buildings are publicly owned; the side to the right of the cathedral, on St. Ann Street, is owned by the state, and the other side, on St. Peter Street, by the city. On the state-owned side is the 1850 House, and at 540-B St. Peter Street on the city-owned side is a plaque marking the apartment of Sherwood Anderson, writer and mentor to William Faulkner.

Built in 1859 and styled after an Italian villa, this home is one of the largest in the district. Doric and Corinthian columns support its rounded galleries. It is believed to be the first house in New Orleans with "waterworks," as indoor plumbing was called then.

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.

This 30,000-square-foot museum, which opened in 2014 on the up-and-coming O.C. Haley Boulevard, 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.