Place d'Armes
Encyclopedia
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
in Old Montreal
Old Montreal
Old Montreal is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France. Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is bordered on the west by McGill St., on the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, on the east by Berri St. and on the south by the Saint Lawrence River...
quarter of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
History
Place d'Armes is the second oldest public site in Montreal, it was called Place de la Fabrique when it was first developed in 1693, at the request of the Sulpicians, then later renamed Place d'Armes in 1721 when it became the stage of various military events. From 1781 to 1813, it was used as a hay and wood market, then developed as a Victorian garden after it was acquired by the city in 1836. Until recently its layout dated back to 1960. The City of Montreal began renovating Place d'Armes again in the second half of 2009.Monument
The square features a monument in memory of Paul de ChomedeyPaul Chomedey de Maisonneuve
Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve was a French military officer and the founder of Montreal.- Early career :...
(1895), by artist Louis-Philippe Hébert
Louis-Philippe Hébert
Louis-Philippe Hébert was the son of Théophile Hébert, a farmer, and Julie Bourgeois of Ste-Sophie de Mégantic, Quebec. Louis-Philippe Hébert was a sculptor who sculpted forty monuments, busts, medals and statues in wood, bronze and terra-cotta. He taught at the Conseil des arts et manufactures in...
, commemorating Chomedey's defense of the young French settlement against the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, against whom de Maisonneuve's allies the Hurons were fighting. Foundations from the original Notre-Dame Church lie under the square.
Surrounding structures
The buildings that surround it represent major periods of Montreal's development. Fronting the square is Notre-Dame BasilicaNotre-Dame Basilica (Montreal)
Notre-Dame Basilica is a basilica in the historic district of Old Montreal, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The church is located at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, at the corner of Saint Sulpice Street...
and the Saint-Sulpice Seminary. Other structures include the New York Life Building
New York Life Building, Montreal
Montreal's New York Life Insurance Building was erected in 1887-1889. Located at Place d'Armes in what is now known as Old Montreal, it was the tallest commercial building in Montreal at the time. The first eight floors were designed for retail office space, though were quickly rented by the...
(1887), Montreal's first high-rise; the Bank of Montreal head office
Bank of Montreal Head Office, Montreal
The Bank of Montreal's Head Office is located on Saint Jacques Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, across the Place d'Armes from Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica...
(1859), Canada's first bank; the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
Aldred Building
Aldred Building
The Aldred Building is an Art deco building on the historic Place d'Armes square in the Old Montreal quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
. (1931) and the International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
500 Place D'Armes
500 Place D'Armes
500 Place d'Armes is an International style building on the historic Place d'Armes square in Old Montreal quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
(1968).
Access
Located between Saint JacquesSaint Jacques Street
Saint Jacques Street is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.The street has had two official names: St. James Street in English after St. James's, London; and its current appellation, rue Saint-Jacques, in French. Both names are sometimes used in English, though Saint-Jacques is the most...
and Notre-Dame
Notre-Dame Street
Notre-Dame Street is a historic east-west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from the eastern tip of the island to Lachine . In French, it is known as rue Notre-Dame....
streets, Place d'Armes is a departure point for calèches
Barouche
A barouche was a fashionable type of horse-drawn carriage in the 19th century. Developed from the calash of the 18th century, it was a four-wheeled, shallow vehicle with two double seats inside, arranged vis-à-vis, so that the sitters on the front seat faced those on the back seat...
offering horse-drawn tours of Old Montreal. The metro station of the same name
Place-d'Armes (Montreal Metro)
Place-d'Armes is a station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in Old Montreal in the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
is within walking distance.
An 1801 plan to extend Place d'Armes down to Saint-Antoine Street to offer a more commanding view of Notre-Dame basilica was never realized. Instead it is connected to Saint-Antoine Street by the steep Côte de la Place-d'Armes.
Formerly, when Montreal's downtown and central business district centred on Old Montreal and Saint-Jacques Street (or St. James as it was then called), Place d'Armes was the hub of the city's tramway lines, with a depot to the north on Craig Street (now Saint-Antoine). A 1940s plan for the Montreal metro planned a station directly underneath the square for easy transfer (the current station is a short distance to the north).
Origin of name
The place d'Armes is the third location in Montreal to bear that name, a long-used FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
term for a place where a city's defenders assemble.