St Louis Cathedral
Triple-spired cathedral on Jackson Square, the oldest continuously used cathedral in the USA.
A parish church has stood on this ground since 1727. Fire destroyed the second building in 1788, and the merchant Andres Almonaster y Roxas paid for a replacement designed by Gilberto Guillemard, dedicated at Christmas 1794 and raised to cathedral rank the following year. The flanking Cabildo and Presbytere, completed in the same Spanish colonial period, give Jackson Square its symmetry, and the three buildings together form the civic centre of the French Quarter.
Between 1849 and 1851 the structure was substantially rebuilt to designs by J. N. B. de Pouilly, who added the central steeple and the pair of slimmer side towers that fix the cathedral in every view of the square. Inside are a Rococo Revival high altar, stained glass telling the life of Louis IX of France and a ceiling mural of the saint announcing the Seventh Crusade. It remains an active parish church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Highlights
- Three spires facing Jackson Square and the Mississippi levee
- Ceiling mural of Louis IX proclaiming the Seventh Crusade
- Stained glass windows on the life of the cathedral's patron saint
- Setting between the Cabildo and Presbytere of the 1790s
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
