Free previewStop 4 of Haunted French Quarter Walking Tour
Père Antoine and the Bell Called Victoire
You're standing on Chartres Street at the top of Jackson Square, on the pedestrian block locals call Place John Paul II. In front of you is St. Louis Cathedral, with the Cabildo you just left on one side and its twin, the Presbytère, on the other. Look up at the tall center spire. Somewhere up there hangs a bell with a name.
People have been coming to pray on this exact spot since the city was founded in 1718. The first church was a crude wooden structure. The second, of brick and timber, burned in the great fire of Good Friday, 1788. A new church rose under Spanish rule, and in 1793 it became a cathedral. So the generations who knelt here heard French, then Spanish, and the cathedral's sacramental register didn't switch from French to English until 1910.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 4 of Haunted French Quarter Walking Tour (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
