Spanish Colonial New Orleans — Cabildo District

The Quarter is a lie, or at least a beautiful misunderstanding. Every tourist who walks Royal Street admiring "French colonial" balconies is looking at Spanish ironwork. Those courtyards framed by stucco arches, those galleries dripping wrought iron — all of it was built under Spanish rule, in the three decades after fire erased what the French had made. Spain took control in 1769, inheriting a wooden city built by the French since 1718. On Good Friday 1788, New Orleans burned. The Great Fire destroyed 856 buildings. Six years later, in December 1794, another fire took 212 more. What the Spanish rebuilt wasn't French. They used brick, stucco, and tile. They built multi-storied structures around interior courtyards, with large arched doorways and decorative wrought iron — the architecture of Spain and its colonies transplanted whole to the Mississippi. The Cabildo, where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803, was a Spanish government building. St. Louis Cathedral and the Presbytere, two of the Quarter's landmarks, were built during Spanish rule. The city you walk through when you visit the French Quarter is a Spanish city wearing a French name. Spain ruled for thirty-four years, 1769 to 1803. In 1800 they signed a secret treaty returning Louisiana to France, though Spain kept administering it until France was ready to take possession. That moment came in November 1803, when a French prefect arrived to formally accept control. He held it for twenty days before handing the territory to the United States. Walk Royal and Chartres Streets. The paradox is visible on every block: the Quarter's most French-seeming features are Spanish.