St Peter, Chartres and St Ann streets are pedestrianized where they border the square. During the day, everyone passes by at some time or another, weaving their way through the tangle of artists, Lucky Dog hot dog vendors, rainbow-clad palmists, magicians, shambolic brass bands and blues musicians. A postcard-perfect backdrop for the Jackson statue, St Louis Cathedral is the oldest continuously active cathedral in the United States. It's the third church on this spot, built in 1794 after the first two had been destroyed by fire and hurricane. Dominated by three tall slate steeples, the facade, which marries Greek Revival symmetry with copious French arches, is oddly two-dimensional, like some elabo rate stage prop. Though the cathedral has always been central to the life of this very Catholic city - Andrew Jackson laid his sword on the altar in thanks for victory at the Battle of New Orleans; voodoo queen Marie Laveau was baptized and married here - the interior offers little to get excited about.
On the upriver side of the cathedral, the Cabildo ($5) was built as the Casa Capitular, seat of the Spanish colonial government. The building - which cuts an impressive dash with its colonnade, fan windows and wrought-iron balconies - is now part of the Louisiana State Museum . Inside, the outstanding history museum ably picks its way through the complex tangle of cultures, classes and races that binds together Louisiana's history, starting with the Native Americans and winding up with the demise of Reconstruction. In keeping with the city's fascination with matters morbid, there's a room devoted to disease, death and mourning, while another displays the viciously racist parade float designs put out by the Mardi Gras krewes during Reconstruction - Union generals portrayed as vermin and newly liberated blacks as simian fools. Black history is well-represented throughout, with as much emphasis on the free people of color as on the city's role as the major slave-trading center of the South.
On the second floor you can see the bronze death mask of Napoleon , along with the reconstructed Sala Capitular , where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803, and where in 1892, the historic Plessy vs Ferguson case, which effectively legalized segregation throughout the South, was first argued.
Forming a matching pair with the Cabildo, the Presbytère ($5), on the downriver side of the cathedral, was designed in 1791 as a rectory. It was never used as such, however; and after completion in 1813 went on to serve as a courthouse. Today it's an unmissable Mardi Gras museum , which covers carnival from every conceivable angle. Full of odd treasures, among them jewel-encrusted costumes, primitive masks, posters and bizarre dance cards, with videos, interactive themed rooms, music stations and lots of great captioning, it manages perhaps more than any other city museum to give a real sense of what makes this unique city tick. It would take days to see the place in its entirety; if you do have to skim a section or two, though, make sure to leave time to play dress-up. There's a jumble of satiny clown ensembles by the exit that you're free to try on, and a photo-booth where you can pose for a souvenir snap.
The elegant three-story Pontalba Buildings , which line St Peter and St Ann streets where they border the square, were commissioned by the formidable Baroness Pontalba, who, having returned from France in 1849 to find her real estate palling in comparison to the American sector across Canal Street, dreamed of replacing the shabby buildings around the Place d'Armes with elegant colonnaded structures resembling those she'd seen in Paris. Planned as both business and residential units, they are still used as such, and remain some of the city's most desirable places to live. These were not, as is commonly claimed, the first apartment buildings in the US, but they were innovative in their use of mass-produced materials and, in particular, of cast iron - indeed, it was these very balconies that sparked off the citywide fad for lacy ironwork, which soon came to replace the plainer iron hand-wrought locally by African slaves. Part of the state museum, the cordoned-off rooms of the restored 1850 House , 523 St Ann St ($3), recreate the tastes of the well-to-do Creole families who lived in these fashionable apartments. Unfortunately, though the self-guided tours draw attention to every piece of Vieux Paris china and fine crystal - a treat for decorative arts fans - they leave you with little sense of how the family might have lived.
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