Belœil (Québec)
| Belœil | |||
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.jpg) Belœil Church |
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| Location in Quebec | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | Quebec | ||
| Administrative region : | Montérégie | ||
| MRC or equivalent : | La Vallée-du-Richelieu | ||
| Coordinates : | 45 ° 34 ′ N , 73 ° 12 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 20 m | ||
| Area : | 24.09 km² | ||
| Residents : | 20,783 (as of 2011) | ||
| Population density : | 862.7 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern Time ( UTC − 5 ) | ||
| Municipality number: | 57040 | ||
| Postal code : | J3G-J3H | ||
| Area code : | +1 450 | ||
| Mayor : | Diane Lavoie | ||
| Website : | www.ville.beloeil.qc.ca | ||
 Located in the MRC La Vallée-du-Richelieu |
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Belœil (also spelled Beloeil ) is a city in the southwest of the Canadian province of Québec . It is located in the administrative region of Montérégie , about 30 kilometers east of Montreal . Belœil belongs to the regional county municipality (municipalité régionale du comté) La Vallée-du-Richelieu , has an area of 24.09 km² and has 20,783 inhabitants (2011).
geography
Belœil is located in the Rive-Sud region , on the left bank of the Rivière Richelieu . This tributary of the St. Lawrence River also forms the eastern city limits. Due to its location in the St. Lawrence Lowland, the terrain is largely flat; the part that is not built over is mainly used for agriculture. On the opposite side of the river, the 414 meter high Mont Saint-Hilaire towers up. This was formerly called Mont Belœil, belongs to the Montérégie hills and forms a landmark that can be seen from afar. There are two historic city centers around the church and around the train station, which gradually merged from the 1950s onwards. Belœil has grown together with McMasterville , Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Otterburn Park to form an agglomeration with over fifty thousand inhabitants.
Neighboring municipalities are Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu in the north, Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu in the northeast, Mont-Saint-Hilaire in the east, Otterburn Park in the southeast, McMasterville in the south, Saint-Basile-le-Grand in the southwest and Saint -Mathieu-de-Belœil to the west.
history
Although there are numerous indications of a settlement by indigenous natives along the Rivière Richelieu, no archaeological finds have so far been made in the urban area itself. In 1694, Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac transferred a manorial rule along the river to the officer Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière, the Seigneurie Belœil. The place name is said to be due to his son Jean-Baptiste, who climbed the Mont Saint-Hilaire and is said to have raved about the beautiful view ("quelle belle œil!"). Hertel did not want to give up his military career and refrained from developing the area. In 1711 he sold the Seigneurie to Charles Le Moyne, the owner of the neighboring Seigneurie Longueuil . The permanent settlement finally began in 1725, after extensive clearing had been carried out.
The village received its own chapel in 1772, which belonged to the parish of Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil . The first church was built between 1784 and 1787. This burned down twice in the course of its history, in 1817 and 1895. In December 1848, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad put the Montreal to Saint-Hyacinthe railway into operation, the first section of the Montreal – Island Pond railway . The route passed Belœil two kilometers south of the church and crossed the river on a swing bridge . A small hamlet developed in the vicinity of the train station. The buildings also included a few summer houses, which had been built mainly by Montreal citizens along the Rivière Richelieu.
In 1855, one year after the abolition of the manor, the Belœil community was founded. On June 29, 1864, Canada's worst railway accident occurred on the bridge , when a passenger train ignored the stop signal in front of the opened swing bridge and fell into the river; 99 people died in this accident. Industrialization began in 1878 when the Hamilton Powder Company opened an explosives factory south of the station (in what is now McMasterville). In 1903 the settlement around the station was merged with the municipality of Belœil. This received city status in 1914.
Although Montreal was only a few kilometers away, a direct road connection to the nearby city was not established until 1940. In the 1950s the population rose to almost 6,000 people. Spatially, the two settlements had now grown together into a single city. In 1964 the city was connected to the motorway network. Today Belœil is considered a suburb of the Montreal metropolitan area. Since 2000, the city has been a member of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal association .
population
According to the 2011 census, Belœil had 20,783 inhabitants, which corresponds to a population density of 862.7 inh / km². 94.6% of the population stated French as their main language, while English accounted for 2.3%. 0.8% said they were bilingual (French and English), other languages and multiple answers accounted for 2.3%. Only French spoke 53.5%. In 2001, 90.7% of the population were Roman Catholic , 3.1% Protestant and 5.3% of no denomination.
traffic
Autoroute 20 runs along the northern outskirts in a west-east direction . This motorway, part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, connects Montreal with Lévis . Route 116 , one of the most important national highways in the province, also runs between these two cities . Route 133 follows the opposite bank of the river between Sorel-Tracy and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu . Passenger traffic on the railway line was temporarily suspended in 1988. It was resumed in 2000, but Belœil train station remained closed. AMT local trains therefore stop in neighboring McMasterville . In addition, several bus routes operated by the CIT de la Vallée du Richelieu company connect the city with Montreal, Longueuil and Saint-Hyacinthe .
Personalities
- Louis-Philippe Brodeur (1862–1924), politician
- Philippe-Auguste Choquette (1854–1948), politician
- Béatrice La Palme (1878–1921), Canadian singer, violinist and music teacher
Web links
- Official website of Belœil (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Belœil. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed January 18, 2014 (French).
- ↑ Les premiers habitants de Belœil. Société d'histoire de Belœil-Mont-Saint-Hilaire, 2009, accessed January 18, 2014 (French).
- ↑ Histoire. (No longer available online.) City of Belœil, archived from the original on December 21, 2013 ; Retrieved January 18, 2014 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Il ya 150 ans, tragédie du pont de Belœil. Société d'histoire de Belœil-Mont-Saint-Hilaire, 2009, accessed January 18, 2014 (French).
- ↑ Population profile of the municipality of Belœil. In: 2011 Census. Statistics Canada , 2011, accessed January 18, 2014 (French).
- ↑ Population profile of the municipality of Belœil. In: 2001 Census. Statistics Canada , 2001, accessed January 18, 2014 (French).
