Micaela Almonester

Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba
Portrait of Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba in the Louisiana State Museum
Born	Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester y Rojas November 6, 1795 New Orleans, Louisiana
Died	April 20, 1874 Paris, France
Nationality	Spanish (by birth) French (by marriage) American (upon Louisiana's admission to Union)
Occupation	Businesswoman Real estate developer Lay architect
Known for	The design and construction of the Pontalba Buildings in the French Quarter of New Orleans
Spouse(s)	Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, Baron de Pontalba (m. 1811–74)
Children	Joseph Delfau de Pontalba Célestin Delfau de Pontalba Alfred Delfau de Pontalba Gaston Delfau de Pontalba Mathilde Delfau de Pontalba
Parent(s)	Andrés Almonester y Rojas Louise Denys de la Ronde

Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester y Rojas, Baroness de Pontalba (November 6, 1795- April 20, 1874) was a wealthy New Orleans-born aristocrat, businesswoman and real estate designer and developer who endures as one of the most recalled and dynamic personalities in the city's history, though she lived most of her life in Paris.

On April 26, 1798, when Micaela was just two-and-a-half-years old, her Spanish father, Don Andrés Almonester y Rojas, died, leaving her his sole surviving heir. Micaela inherited a considerable fortune. Her estate was capably administered by her mother, Louise Denys de la Ronde, referenced as "a superbly competent businesswoman who had greatly increased the inheritance since Almonester's death." Following Micaela's marriage, in 1811, to her French cousin, Joseph-Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, she moved to France. The marriage was not successful and she became a virtual prisoner at the de Pontalba chateau near Senlis.

Having failed, despite his concerted efforts over more than two decades, to gain possession of Micaela's entire inheritance, her father-in-law, Baron de Pontalba, eventually shot her four times at point-blank range with a pair of dueling pistols, and then committed suicide. She survived the attack, although her left breast and two of her fingers were mutilated by gunfire. Her husband, Cèlestin, succeeded his father as baron, and Micaela was thereafter styled Baroness de Pontalba. She eventually obtained a legal separation from her husband.

Micaela was responsible for the design and construction of the famous Pontalba Buildings in Jackson Square, in the heart of the French Quarter. In 1855, she had built the Hôtel de Pontalba in Paris, where she lived until her death in 1874. Her life was worthy of an operatic plot, and eventually became one: Pontalba: a Louisiana Legacy, composed by Thea Musgrave. A play by Diana E.H. Shortes entitled The Baroness Undressed, and several novels, are also based on her dramatic life.

Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester was born November 6, 1795, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the eldest and only surviving child of Don Andres Almonester y Rojas and his aristocratic French wife, Louise Denys de la Ronde, a member of one of the most illustrious families in Louisiana. At the time of her birth, Louisiana was owned by Spain, though Spanish settlers were then greatly outnumbered by the colony's previous owners, who were mainly French. Don Andres, a native of Mairena del Alcor, Andalucia, Spain, was a wealthy notary and politician who amassed a fortune in real estate and land transfers from his power on the Cabildo, the Spanish governing council of New Orleans, and his contacts with the Spanish Crown. On 20 March 1787, he married Louise Denis de la Ronde (1758 - 1825), who was 30 years his junior.