The capital of Louisiana is also the heart of the Southern ‘Plantation Country’ region. The ‘Blues’ are a large part of the Baton Rouge heritage, sung by slaves as they picked plantation cotton, and the city was the original home of many of the USA’s most well-known blues musicians.
The Capitol Building is a 34-story building with a viewing platform overlooking 11 hectares (27 acres) of formal gardens in the Capitol grounds. Other attractions include the Old Capitol, with its Center for Political and Governmental History; the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion, with exhibits of art, natural history and anthropology; Baton Rouge Zoo, with its 57 hectares (140 acres) of walk-through areas and forest settings for over 400 animals; the Louisiana Arts and Science Center Riverside, located in a remodeled railroad station; and the LSU Rural Life Museum, an outdoor museum located in the grounds of a former plantation, showing the type of work done in a 19th-century plantation community. Many magnificent old plantation mansions are available for viewing in this area, some offering bed & breakfast facilities as well as tours.