Discover the fascinating city of Montreal on a walking tour through a city bursting with amazing art, intriguing history and spectacular architecture. Your walk will take you past Notre-Dame Basilica, Place Jacques-Cartier, City Hall and much more.
Your guide on the walking tour will tell you about the history and architecture of Montreal through anecdotes revealing the city's secrets! Highlights on the tour include:
- Place d'Armes to Place Jacques-Cartier
Discover the fascinating city of Montreal on a walking tour through a city bursting with amazing art, intriguing history and spectacular architecture. Your walk will take you past Notre-Dame Basilica, Place Jacques-Cartier, City Hall and much more.
Your guide on the walking tour will tell you about the history and architecture of Montreal through anecdotes revealing the city's secrets! Highlights on the tour include:
- Place d'Armes to Place Jacques-Cartier
- Royal Bank
- Notre-Dame Basilica
- Cours Le Royer
- St. Jacques
- Notre-Dame and St. Paul Streets
- City Hall
- Champ de Mars
- Bonsecours Market
This tour is seasonal and operates from May through to October.
- Royal Bank
- Notre-Dame Basilica
- Cours Le Royer
- St. Jacques
- Notre-Dame and St. Paul Streets
- City Hall
- Champ de Mars
- Bonsecours Market
This tour is seasonal and operates from May through to October.
For over a century and a half, Montreal was the industrial and financial centre of Canada. The variety of buildings included factories, elevators, warehouses, mills, and refineries which today provide a legacy of historic and architectural interest, especially in the downtown area and the Old Port area.
Today there are also many historical buildings in Old Montreal still in their original form: Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Bonsecours Market, and the impressive 19th century headquarters of all major Canadian banks on St. James Street (French: Rue Saint Jacques). Saint Joseph's Oratory, completed in 1967, Ernest Cormier's Art Deco Université de Montréal main building, the landmark Place Ville Marie office tower, the controversial Olympic Stadium and surrounding structures, are but a few notable examples of 20th century architecture.
Pavilions designed for the 1967 International and Universal Exposition, popularly known as Expo 67, featured a wide range of architectural designs. Though most pavilions were temporary structures, several remaining structures have become Montreal landmarks, including the geodesic dome US Pavilion, now the Montreal Biosphere, as well as Moshe Safdie's striking Habitat 67 apartment complex.
The Montreal Metro is filled with a profusion of public artwork by some of the biggest names in Quebec culture. The design and ornamentation of each station in the Metro system is unique.
In 2006 Montreal was named a UNESCO City of Design, only one of three design capitals of the world (with the others being Berlin and Buenos Aires). This distinguished title recognizes Montreal's design community. Since 2005 the city has been home for the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda);the International Design Alliance (IDA).
Montreal's Underground City (officially RÉSO or La Ville Souterraine in French) is the set of interconnected complexes (both above and below ground) in and around Downtown Montreal. It is considered the largest underground complex in the world.
Montreal is located in the southwest of the province of Quebec. The city proper covers most of the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The port of Montreal lies at one end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which is the river gateway that stretches from the Great Lakes into the Atlantic Ocean. Montreal is defined by its location in between the St. Lawrence river on its south, and by the Rivière des Prairies on its north. The city is named after the most prominent geographical feature on the island, a three-head hill called Mount Royal, topped at 232 m above sea level.
Montreal is at the centre of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, and is bordered by the city of Laval to the north, Longueuil, St. Lambert, Brossard, and other municipalities to the south, Repentigny to the east and the West Island municipalities to the west. The anglophone enclaves of Westmount, Montreal West, Hampstead, Côte Saint-Luc, the Town of Mount Royal and the francophone enclave Montreal East are all entirely surrounded by the city of Montreal.
[edit] Climate
Montreal lies at the confluence of several climatic regions. Usually, the climate is classified as humid continental or hemiboreal (Köppen climate classification Dfb).
Montreal's summers are warm, at times hot and humid with average high temperatures of 24 - 26°C (74 - 79°F) and lows of 13 - 16°C (55 - 60°F), but temperatures frequently reach or exceed 30°C (86°F). Winter in Montreal usually brings very cold, snowy, windy, and at times, icy weather, with an average high temperature of -2 to -6°C (25 - 28°F) and lows of -10 to -15°C (6 - 13°F). However, some winter days are milder with temperatures slightly above freezing, and others below -20°C (-4°F)
Spring and fall are pleasantly mild but prone to drastic temperature changes. [46] Late season heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are a common occurrence.
The lowest temperature ever recorded was −37.8 °C (−36 °F) on January 15, 1957, and the highest temperature was 37.6 °C (100 °F) on August 1, 1975.
Annual precipitation is around 980 mm (39 in), including an average 218 cm (86 in) of snowfall, which occurs from November thru March. The city gets over 2,000 hours of sunshine annually, with summer being the sunniest, but is also the slightly wetter season.
Montreal is at the centre of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, and is bordered by the city of Laval to the north, Longueuil, St. Lambert, Brossard, and other municipalities to the south, Repentigny to the east and the West Island municipalities to the west. The anglophone enclaves of Westmount, Montreal West, Hampstead, Côte Saint-Luc, the Town of Mount Royal and the francophone enclave Montreal East are all entirely surrounded by the city of Montreal.
[edit] Climate
Montreal lies at the confluence of several climatic regions. Usually, the climate is classified as humid continental or hemiboreal (Köppen climate classification Dfb).
Montreal's summers are warm, at times hot and humid with average high temperatures of 24 - 26°C (74 - 79°F) and lows of 13 - 16°C (55 - 60°F), but temperatures frequently reach or exceed 30°C (86°F). Winter in Montreal usually brings very cold, snowy, windy, and at times, icy weather, with an average high temperature of -2 to -6°C (25 - 28°F) and lows of -10 to -15°C (6 - 13°F). However, some winter days are milder with temperatures slightly above freezing, and others below -20°C (-4°F)
Spring and fall are pleasantly mild but prone to drastic temperature changes. [46] Late season heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are a common occurrence.
The lowest temperature ever recorded was −37.8 °C (−36 °F) on January 15, 1957, and the highest temperature was 37.6 °C (100 °F) on August 1, 1975.
Annual precipitation is around 980 mm (39 in), including an average 218 cm (86 in) of snowfall, which occurs from November thru March. The city gets over 2,000 hours of sunshine annually, with summer being the sunniest, but is also the slightly wetter season.
Archaeological evidence demonstrates that various nomadic First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal for at least 2,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. By the year 1000 CE, they had started to cultivate maize. Within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villagesThe St. Lawrence Iroquoians, a people distinct from the Iroquois nations of the Haudenosaunee who originated mostly in present-day New York, established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal centuries before the French arrived. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at other locations in the valley since at least the 1300s.The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga on October 2, 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand".
Seventy years later, French explorer Samuel de Champlain reported that the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and their settlements had disappeared altogether from the St. Lawrence valley, possibly due to outmigration, epidemic of European diseases, or intertribal wars.In 1611 Champlain established a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, on a site initially named La Place Royale. At the confluence of Petite Rivière and St. Lawrence River, it is where present-day Pointe-à-Callière stands.] In 1639, Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière obtained the Seigneurial title to the Island of Montreal in the name of the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal to establish a Roman Catholic mission for evangelizing natives. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve was the governor of the colony.
Ville-Marie became a centre for the fur trade and a base for further French exploration in North America. By the early 1700s, the Sulpician Order was established there. To encourage French settlement, they wanted the Mohawk to move away from the fur trading post at Ville-Marie. They persuaded them to make a new settlement at their former hunting grounds north of the Ottawa River. This became Kanesatake.The Canadian territory remained a French colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to Great Britain after their victory in the Seven Years War
Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832.The opening of the Lachine Canal permitted ships to bypass the unnavigable Lachine Rapids, while the construction of the Victoria Bridge established Montreal as a major railway hub. By 1860, it was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada.
Montreal was the capital of the Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, but lost its status when a Tory mob burnt down the Parliament building to protest the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill.[31] Toronto, more toward the center of the nation, was then established as the capital.
After World War I, the Prohibition movement in the United States turned Montreal into a haven for Americans looking for alcohol. Unemployment remained high in the city, and was exacerbated by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression
During World War II, Mayor Camillien Houde protested against conscription and urged Montrealers to disobey the federal government's registry of all men and women. Ottawa was furious over Houde's stand and sent him in a prison camp until 1944,when the government decided to institute conscription to enlarge the forces. (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
By 1951, Montreal's population had surpassed one million people. The Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, allowing vessels to bypass Montreal. In time this development led to the end of the city's economic dominance.However, the 1960s saw continued growth, including Expo 67, the construction of Canada's tallest skyscrapers, new expressways and the Montreal Metro system.
The 1970s ushered in a period of wide-ranging social and political changes, stemming in large part from the concerns of the French-Canadian majority about the conservation of their culture and language, given the traditional predominance of the English-Canadian minority in the business arenaThe October Crisis and the election of the Parti Québécois, supporting sovereign status for Quebec, resulted in the departure of many businesses and people from the city. In 1976, Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympics
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Montreal experienced a slower rate of economic growth than many other major Canadian cities. By the late 1990s, however, Montreal's economic climate had improved, as new firms and institutions began to fill the traditional business and financial niches.
Montreal was merged with the 27 surrounding municipalities on the Island of Montreal on January 1, 2002. The merger created a unified city of Montreal which covered the entire island of Montreal. This move proved unpopular. Several former municipalities, totalling 13% of the population of the island, voted to leave the newly unified city in separate referendums in June 2004. The demerger took place on January 1, 2006, leaving 15 municipalities on the island, including Montreal.
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