St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Complex

Alexandria's Catholic church is the one church said to have survived the burning of 1864, and a long-told story credits Father J. P. Bellier, who is said to have imitated General Banks's voice and ordered the troops to leave it alone. That church dated from 1817 and burned in 1895. Its replacement, designed by Nicholas J. Clayton and dedicated November 30, 1899, was the city's first brick church. When Pope Pius X approved moving the diocesan seat from Natchitoches on August 6, 1910, it became a cathedral. The complex was listed on the National Register in 1984.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 0.3 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
• Forts Randolph and Buhlow State Historic Site — 0.8 mi
  Two Confederate earthen forts on the Red River at Pineville, built with enslaved labor and never attacked, beside the remains of Bailey's Dam.
• Kent Plantation House — 2.2 mi
  Rapides Parish's oldest known standing building, a Creole house with a February tour and a 2023 memorial that put the enslaved first.
• Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum — 4.8 mi
  A National Guard museum in a replica WWII barracks at Camp Beauregard, built around the huge 1940-41 war games in Central Louisiana. Free.

More markers nearby

• The Hotel Bentley — steps away
• Thomas Courtland Manning — 0.2 mi
• Alexandria — 0.2 mi
• Red River — 0.2 mi