City: New Orleans, LA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (504) 529-3040

Address: 1100 Chartres St.

Description: Constructed in 1745, the Old Ursuline Convent, the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley and the only one to survive French colonial times, is 25 years younger than New Orleans but 25 years older than the United States. Its history is a microcosm of early life here. The Ursuline nuns were both saints and pioneers when they opened the doors of their convent to the orphaned children of the French colonists slaughtered at Fort Rosalie, a pitifully long list of names still visible in the convent’s yellowing archives. Here the nuns conducted an academy for the daughters of wealthy plantation owners and the city’s Creole aristocracy. But the sisters also extended their generosity to the less fortunate by teaching young black and Indian.The great fire of 1788, which swept away the St. Louis Cathedral and 856 homes in the French Quarter, also threatened the convent, but Pere Antoine with the aid of a “bucket brigade” saved not only this building but also the adjoining Royal Hospital and barracks. It was inside the chapel in 1815 that the nuns and relatives of the men fighting with Andrew Jackson’s forces at the Battle of New Orleans spent the night in prayer before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Guided tours are offered Tues through Fri 10 and 11 a.m. and 1, 2, and 3 p.m., Sat and Sun 11:15 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m.