St. Anthony’s Garden
St. Anthony’s Garden is located on Royal Street, behind St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana. It contains three in-ground graves in which two of them are currently occupied. In the early days this dry ground was very attractive to bury the earliest residents of New Orleans. Just as most of the cemeteries in this area, tombstones were never put in place. Unmarked graves such as these were often used due to the epidemics and fires that took place here in the late 18th century. This was because there would be so many deaths, bodies would be laying all over the streets.
Hundreds of these unmarked graves are contained within St. Anthony’s Garden. As vistors walk amongst the large iron gate in front of the garden at night, they may see shawdows move across the ground and have a cold breeze felt against their cheeks. Some people even hear the sounds of bullets being fired from inside the garden. This is most likely because from the period of 1740-1790, this spot was the town’s place for settling disputes by duels. There are no official records of duels here but these occurences were so frequent and loud that the priests had them find a new spot to conduct the activities.
(Source: Dwyer, Jeff. Ghost Hunter’s Guide to New Orleans. 2007.)
