Part outsider art, part religious site, part personal exorcism, the Kenny Hill Sculpture Garden was built by one man who fought a losing war against his personal demons. 

Top Places in Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Treehouse

Site of a former hidden treehouse in New Orleans.

29.9695, -90.0691

New Orleans, Louisiana

Ruins of Fort Macomb

The crumbling remains of a 19th-Century fortess.

30.0647, -89.8039

Added by Annetta Black

New Orleans, Louisiana

Saint Louis Cemetery No. 2

This "second" cemetery represents New Orleans' attempt to keep cholera at bay.

29.9606, -90.0756

Added by Annetta Black

See more things to do in Louisiana »

Kenny Hill began building a 45-foot tall brick lighthouse on his rented land in the early 1990s. Hill, a bricklayer by trade, continued to fill his yard with life-sized concrete statues of angels representing religious lessons. The figures range from winged angels with fluorescent light bulb halos to figures being raptured or barred from Heaven. Hill often inserted himself into his works, being brought up to Heaven or carried aloft by angels, his face would also often be painted black and white to symbolize his internal struggles. 

While working on the garden, Hill shunned publicity and forbade photographs. He answered questions about the meaning of the artwork only vaguely, stating that the work was a story of salvation for the local people. In 2000, after a decade of working on the site, Hill suffered a crisis of faith which saw him abandon the religious message of the garden. He stopped paying rent, knocked off the head of the statue of Jesus and left town one foot, never to return.

The artwork has since been carefully restored and is now home to an art center and small museum run by a local university.