New Iberia (French: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; Spanish: Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately 21 miles (34 kilometers) southeast of Lafayette, and forms ration of the Lafayette metropolitan statistical Place in the region of Acadiana. The 2020 United States census tabulated a population of 28,555. New Iberia is served by a major four lane highway, being U.S. 90 (future Interstate 49), and has its own general aviation airfield, Acadiana Regional Airport. Scheduled passenger and cargo airline give support to is easy to use via the approachable Lafayette Regional Airport located adjacent to U.S. 90 in Lafayette.

New Iberia dates its founding to the spring of 1779, when a organization of some 500 colonists (Malagueños) from Spain, led by Lt. Col. Francisco Bouligny, came stirring Bayou Teche and settled roughly speaking what became known as Spanish Lake.

The Spanish settlers called the town “Nueva Iberia” in honor of the Iberian Peninsula; French-speakers referred to the town as “Nouvelle Ibérie” while the English settlers arriving after the Louisiana Purchase called it “New Town.” In 1814, the U.S. government opened a proclaim office in the town, officially recognizing the state as New Iberia, but postmarks from 1802 do something the town subconscious called “Nova Iberia” (Latin for “new”). The town was incorporated as the “Town of Iberia” in 1839, but the divulge legislature amended the town’s charter in 1847, recognizing New Iberia as the town’s name.

During the American Civil War, New Iberia was occupied by Union forces below General Nathaniel P. Banks. The soldiers spent the winter of 1862–1863 at New Iberia and, according to historian John D. Winters of Louisiana Tech University in his The Civil War in Louisiana, “found the weather each morning more and more severe. The dreary days dragged by, and the men grumbled as they plowed through the deadening rain and deep mud in the theater the regular routines of camp life.” Banks’ men from New Iberia foraged for supplies in the swamps near the city.