The Gates of Dixie

 St. Louis Cathedral seen from Jackson Square.

The Saint Louis Cathedral is the oldest Cathedral in the United States.  Two other structures have stood where the present building is now located; one was destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1723; the other burned in the Great Fire of 1788.  The present building dates from around 1851.

 The sanctuary of St. Louis Cathedral.

Looking up at the ornate ceiling. 

Organ pipes and clock located above the entrance. 

Louis IX.  Born in 1214.  King of France from 1226 to 1270.  Canonized a saint in 1297. 

A copy of the Bible of St. Louis (located near the entrance)--gifted to the St. Louis Cathedral in 2007. 

 The plaque providing some information about the Bible of St. Louis.

A beautiful stained glass window near the rear of the church. 

St. Anthony’s Garden located just behind St. Louis Cathedral.  Several hundred years ago, this was the location where duels would be fought.  Several centuries-old oak trees of the garden were lost in Hurricane Katrina. 

The marble shaft or obelisk placed in this garden memorializes French marines who lost their lives who volunteered as nurses in the yellow fever epidemic of 1857.