Château Vaudreuil was a stately residence and college in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Quebec, Canada. It was constructed between 1723 and 1726 for

Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil (; c. 1643 – 10 October 1725) was a French military officer who served as Governor General of New France (now Canada and U.S. states of the Mississippi Valley) from 1703 to 1725, throughout Queen ...

, as his private residence by Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry. Though the ''Château Saint-Louis'' in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

remained the official residence of the Governors General of New France, the Château Vaudreuil was to remain as their official home in Montreal up until the British Conquest in 1763. In 1767, it was purchased by the Marquis de Lotbinière. He sold it in 1773, when it became the Collège Saint-Raphaël. It was destroyed by a fire in 1803. Completed in 1726, it was built in the classical style of the French

Hôtel Particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a s ...

King Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

's chief engineer in

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...

, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry. The central building was flanked by two wings with two sets of semi-circular stairs leading up to a terrace and the main entrance. It stood beyond the end of Rue Saint-Paul, which was kept clear of buildings on that side to afford it a clear view, while

formal garden A formal garden is a garden with a clear structure, geometric shapes and in most cases a symmetrical layout. Its origin goes back to the gardens which are located in the desert areas of Western Asia and are protected by walls. The style of a forma ...

s led up to

Notre-Dame Street Notre-Dame Street (officially in french: Rue Notre-Dame) is a historic east-west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from Lachine to the eastern tip of the island in Pointe-aux-Trembles, ...

. Following the fire in 1803, a group of merchants, led by The Hon. Jean-Baptiste Durocher and The Hon. Joseph Périnault, purchased the land. On the condition that it would be used for public markets, they gave the government a small,

oblong An oblong is a non-square rectangle. Oblong may also refer to: Places * Oblong, Illinois, a village in the United States * Oblong Township, Crawford County, Illinois, United States * A strip of land on the New York-Connecticut border in the Unit ...

, strip of land (that had made up part of the

s), which was first named ''New Market Place'' and from 1847 became known as

Place Jacques-Cartier Place Jacques-Cartier (English: Jacques Cartier square) is a square located in Old Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an entrance to the Old Port of Montreal. Overview In 1723, the Château Vaudreuil was built for Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Va ...

. This canny deal made by the merchants had the effect of increasing the value of the adjacent properties built around the 'square', which remained in private hands.Montreal - Ulysses Travel Guides
/ref> In 1809,

Nelson's Column Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar over the combined French and Spanish navies, during whic ...

was built by the citizens of Montreal in what had been part of the Château's

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau Vaudreuil Demolished buildings and structures in Montreal

See also

References

External links