Andres Almonaster y Rojas

Almonester arrived to Louisiana in 1769, during its early days of Spanish rule, appointed escribano publico or notary public, which Grace King described as "an office rich in salary, perquisites, and business opportunities.

After the fire of April 1771, then Almonaster with the positions of secretary, accountant and recorder of Governor Unzaga, would both have to re-plan part of this city urbanistically and constructing the main buildings of what will be the capital of Louisiana.

Approaching his 60th birthday, Almonester wed Marie-Louise Denis de La Ronde (1758 - 1825), a renowned Creole beauty, fully half his age, in the parish church, Iglesia San Luis, in 1787 — the year before it was destroyed by fire.

He would later distinguish himself in the Battle of New Orleans, and is now remembered for his since misnamed Versailles, Louisiana plantation's legacy: a magnificent allée of Southern live oaks, still leading from the Mississippi River to the ruins of his former mansion.

Decades of misery later– despite many efforts made to separate her from his control –in the wake of her protective mother's demise, he finally attempted to murder Micaela, but succeeded only in taking his own misspent life and thus, with the tragic twist of irony, transferring the title Baroness to the indomitable daughter-in-law whose riches he had so diligently sought for his own.

The murderous Baron Pontalba was wed to Louise Marie-Anne Françoise Le Breton des Chapelles, first cousin of the notorious Marie-Delphine de Macarty, better known today as Delphine LaLaurie.