The Lalaurie Mansion: Dark Horrors of Royal Street

Why is it significant?

Look up at the grey stucco facade and intricate cast-iron balcony of eleven forty Royal Street. Known as the Lalaurie Mansion, this handsome three-story building is universally regarded as the most infamous and reputedly haunted address in all of New Orleans.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Look up at the grey stucco facade and intricate cast-iron balcony of eleven forty Royal Street. Known as the Lalaurie Mansion, this handsome three-story building is universally regarded as the most infamous and reputedly haunted address in all of New Orleans.

In the eighteen thirties, socialite Madame Delphine Lalaurie and her physician husband hosted glittering soirees for high society in their crystal-chandeliered ballroom. But behind the elegant facade lay unspeakable cruelty. On April tenth, eighteen thirty-four, a fire broke out in the kitchen, deliberately set by an elderly enslaved cook who was chained to the stove and preferred death to further torture.

When volunteer firefighters kicked down the door to an attic garret, they discovered a nightmarish chamber of horrors: several enslaved men and women starved, chained, and horribly mutilated by Madame Lalaurie. An enraged mob of four thousand citizens stormed and ransacked the mansion, while the Lalauries fled in a carriage to the river and escaped to Paris.

Film fans might recognize the house from American Horror Story: Coven. Actor Nicolas Cage even owned the mansion in the two thousands. Turn down Governor Nicholls Street toward the bustling French Market.