13 Haunting and Haunted New Orleans Locations To Visit

New Orleans, aka the Big Easy or the Crescent City, is the most populous city in Louisiana and one with a reputation for supernatural activity, haunted properties, spooky cemeteries, ghosts, voodoo, and vampires. Some tourists visit for the beads and Bourbon Street, while others are drawn to the vibrant city’s haunted history.

Built around the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans is arguably the most unique city in the United States thanks to its Creole cuisine, French and Spanish architecture, jazz and blues music, Mardi Gras festival, and voodoo. Author Anne Rice set Interview With the Vampire and many of her other novels in the city and used to have a residence in the Garden District. Some even call New Orleans “Hollywood South” since so many TV shows and movies are filmed in the picturesque city.

If you visit New Orleans and want to take a walk on the dark side, there are many haunting and haunted places worth checking out in between sauntering around the Quarter with a beignet and hurricane in hand or throwing beads off a balcony.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

Founded in 1833 and located in the Garden District, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is New Orleans’ first planned cemetery and the final resting place of approximately 7,000 people.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 — listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places — is known for its crumbling, distinctive family crypts built above ground due to New Orleans’ high water table. Situated a few blocks from where author Anne Rice used to live, the cemetery has appeared in movies and TV shows such as Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Diaries, and The Originals.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Established in 1789, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is located one block from the French Quarter in New Orleans and is the oldest extant cemetery in the city. Known for the tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and the unique pyramid-shaped tomb owned by Nicolas Cage, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is a time capsule of various eras of New Orleans history.

Due to vandalism and crime, the city has closed the historic cemetery to the general public. Visitors can still walk the grounds as part of an official guided tour, however.

LaLaurie Mansion

New Orleans socialite Madame Delphine LaLaurie purportedly tortured and murdered numerous enslaved African Americans at her New Orleans mansion on Royal Street in the French Quarter. After rescuers responded to a fire at the LaLaurie mansion in 1834, they discovered bound slaves showing evidence of cruel torture in her attic. Some say Madame LaLaurie fled to Paris while a mob sacked her mansion.

The LaLaurie mansion was rebuilt in 1838 and still stands today in the French Quarter, where ghost tours pass by and boast that it is one of the most haunted houses in America. At one point, Nicolas Cage owned the mansion, but the current owner no longer allows visitors to venture inside the property.

Kathy Bates memorably played Madame LaLaurie on American Horror Story: Coven, which was filmed in New Orleans.

Sultan’s House

Located at the corner of Dauphine and Orleans in the French Quarter, the Sultan’s Palace is a three-and-a-half-story Greek Revival building with cast-iron balconies that was constructed in 1836. It is one of the most iconic and photographed buildings in the Big Easy.

The true history of the Sultan’s House is murky, but the property got its name from the brother of a sultan who rented the property and moved in with a harem of five veiled women and a treasure of gold and jewels — all purportedly stolen from his brother. Legend has it that assassins raided the house and killed all of the occupants, leaving the written message, “This is what happens to traitors.”

Renovated in the 1960s, today the Sultan’s House remains an apartment building with a haunted history.

Museum of Death New Orleans

Those interested in the macabre and true crime will want to stop by the fascinating Museum of Death New Orleans in the French Quarter.

Purposely designed for mature audiences, the Museum of Death features collections of body bags, skulls, coffins, crime-scene photos, antique mortician apparatuses, and artwork and letters by serial killers. The official site warns that the museum is “not for the faint of heart,” and the operators are in no way kidding.

New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum

Located in the French Quarter at 724 Dumaine Street, the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum is a must-see location for those interested in the city’s unique relationship with the voodoo.

In addition to the museum itself — which features historic voodoo relics, statues, artwork, and other artifacts — the museum offers walking tours to Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau’s house and historic Congo Square, where American jazz germinated. People who want to know the real history of the misunderstood voodoo religion and its influence on New Orleans culture will want to stop here early on their visit to the Crescent City.

Hotel Monteleone

Located at 214 Royal Street in the French Quarter, the family-owned Hotel Monteleone is known for the Carousel Bar — New Orleans’ first and only rotating bar that opened in 1949.

Hotel Monteleone, like many New Orleans locations, also has a reputation for being haunted. The 14th floor, which is actually the 13th floor but superstitious architects sometimes avoided having a floor 13 on buildings, is known for its ghostly inhabitants. The spirit of a little boy named Maurice Begere who passed away in the hotel purportedly likes to play pranks on the 14th floor and is one of several ghosts reported by the staff and guests.

Old Absinthe House

Established in 1807, the French Quarter’s Old Absinthe House still stands at the corner of Bienville and Bourbon Streets. The building is historically significant as the place where General Andrew Jackson and pirate Jean Lafitte met to make an arrangement to end the War of 1812. Jackson asked Lafitte to help protect the city from invading British forces and Lafitte agreed in exchange for pardons for him and his men.

Today, the interior of the Old Absinthe House with its brick walls, intricate wooden fixtures, and specialized fountains for serving absinthe looks very much the same as when the future U.S. president made a deal with a pirate about the nation’s future. The ghosts of former patrons, including Lafitte, are said to haunt the building.

Boutique du Vampyre

Boutique du Vampyre is one of the first stores in the world to cater to vampires and mortals who live like them.

Located in the French Quarter, Boutique du Vampyre sells items such as vampire capes, candles, crystals, jewelry, fangs, and books. The shop is located steps away from the affiliated New Orleans Vampire Café, which also caters to both vampires and mere mortals by serving bites such as a Vampire Burger, Dracula Burger, Vampire Chocolate Bats, and Death by Chocolate Cake.

The Cabildo

Located in historic Jackson Square in the French Quarter, the Cabildo is a Spanish colonial building in which the Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies took place in 1803. Now part of the Louisiana State Museum, the Cabildo houses many rare artifacts and documents from New Orleans’ past.

The former courthouse is also the purported home of several ghosts, including the aforementioned pirate Jean Lafitte, who must split his afterlife between the Cabildo and Old Absinthe House.

Voodoo Authentica

The French Quarter’s Voodoo Authentica, unlike some other tourist shops in New Orleans, is owned and operated by actual voodoo practitioners. The Cultural Center & Collection offers voodoo dolls, gris-gris bags, potions, the Rootwork Spa Collection, arts and crafts as well as in-house spiritual consultations.

In addition, Voodoo Authentica is ground zero for the annual Voodoofest, a celebration of Voodoo’s contribution to New Orleans culture that takes place every Halloween.

Antoine’s Restaurant

Established in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore, Antoine’s Restaurant is one of the oldest family-run restaurants still in operation in the United States. The famous Creole restaurant is the birthplace of signature dishes such as Oysters Rockefeller, Eggs Sardou, and Pigeonneaux Paradis. Several U.S. presidents, Pope John Paul II, and countless celebrities have dined in Antoine’s during its time at 713 St. Louis Street in the French Quarter.

Not only is Antoine’s home to some scary-good cuisine, but the ghost of Alciatore is purported to hang around and check on his descendants running the business. Some say you can catch a glimpse in the restroom mirrors of ghosts wearing 19th-century garb.

Andrew Jackson Hotel

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and built in 1890, the French Quarter’s Andrew Jackson Hotel was originally the site of an orphanage for boys who had lost their parents to yellow fever.

When the orphanage burned down in 1794, five boys lost their lives. Their ghosts, including one named Armand, are said to play pranks and their footsteps can be heard throughout the current hotel. The official hotel website claims that some guests even reported waking up after hearing Armand’s laughter or getting pushed out of bed by the mischievous spirit.