Parc Montmorency
| Parc Montmorency | |
|---|---|
 Lieu patrimonial du Canada |
|
| Recognized since | October 26, 1966 |
| Type | National Historic Site |
| ID | 10404 |
| place | Quebec |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 48 '49.1 " N , 71 ° 12' 14.6" W |
| Recognized by | Canadian Federal Government |
| Approved by | Historic Sites and Monuments Act |
| Entry Canadian List of Monuments | |
The Parc Montmorency is a park in the Canadian city of Québec . It is located on the Côte de la Montagne on the eastern edge of the historic upper town . The park was once the site of the Bishop's Palace and two parliament buildings, both of which were destroyed by fire. In its current form, the park has existed since 1898 and has been classified as a National Historic Site since 1966 .
history
The property immediately above the steep rock face of Cap Diamant was owned by the Franciscan Récollet Order from 1616 . In 1688 it was sold to Jean-Baptiste de la Croix Chevrière de Saint-Vallier , the second bishop of Québec . There he had a bishop's palace built between 1693 and 1695. During the siege of Québec in 1759, the building was damaged by British artillery fire, and repaired seven years later.
Governor General Guy Carleton signed a long-term lease with the bishop in 1777 to use the bishop's palace as the seat of government, as it was the only building in the city with a sufficiently large hall for representative purposes. On December 17, 1792, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada met in the converted chapel of the Bishop's Palace. From around 1815 the building showed clear signs of decay. The government bought it from the archbishopric in 1830 and had it replaced from 1831 by a new building designed by the architect Thomas Baillairgé. The first parliamentary session in the new building took place on January 7, 1834.
The unification of Lower and Upper Canada to form the Province of Canada in 1841 meant that the seat of government changed several times. Québec held this status from 1852. On February 1, 1854, the parliament building burned down and the members of parliament avoided the music academy. A year later, the seat of government was moved to Toronto . From 1859 Québec was again the capital and a new one was built at the site of the burned down parliament building, which also served as a post office . In 1866 Québec finally lost its state capital to Ottawa . In 1883 the second parliament building also burned down. The site lay fallow for over a decade and was converted into a public park in 1898 on the initiative of Simon-Napoléon Parent .
Bishop's Palace and ruins after the conquest (1759)
Statue of Louis Hébert
Statue of George-Etienne Cartier
description
The park has a triangular shape, delimited by the steep slope in the east, the Rue Port-Dauphin in the northwest and the Côte de la Montagne in the south. The reconstructed city gate Porte Prescott, part of the city walls of Québec , spans the latter street, directly adjacent to the park . Nothing remains of the earlier buildings.
Two statues adorn the park. In 1920, George William Hill created a monument in honor of George-Étienne Cartier , one of the fathers of the Confederation . The two meter high bronze sculpture shows Cartier as a speaker; excerpts from his speeches can be read on the base. The second work of art is by Alfred Laliberté . It depicts Louis Hébert , the first settler in Québec who lived in the immediate vicinity of the park. The bronze statue shows Hébert stretching up a tuft of wheat ears; Minor characters at the foot of the base represent his wife, his three children and his brother-in-law Guillaume Couillard. Originally, the statue stood in front of the Hôtel de Ville since 1918 and was moved to Parc Montmorency in 1971.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Le lieu historique national du Parc-Montmorency. Parks Canada , March 19, 2014, accessed November 4, 2014 (French).
- ^ Serge Courville, Robert Garon: Québec, ville et capitale . Les Presses de l'Université Laval, Québec 2001, ISBN 2-7637-7674-4 , pp. 166-168 .
- ^ Courville, Garon: Québec, ville et capitale. Pp. 170-171.
- ↑ Monuments de George-Etienne Cartier et de Louis Hébert. Québec plus, 2012, accessed November 4, 2014 (French).
- ^ Monument de Louis Hébert. Grand Québec, accessed November 4, 2014 (French).