Piopolis, Quebec
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Piopolis, Quebec
OR:
Piopolis, Quebec on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Piopolis is a
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
of about 400 people in Le Granit Regional County Municipality in the
Estrie Estrie () is an List of Quebec regions, administrative region of Quebec that comprises the Eastern Townships. ''Estrie'', a French neologism, was coined as a derivative of ''est'', "east". Originally settled by anglophones, today it is about 90 pe ...
region in Quebec, Canada. The name of the town means, 'city of the Pope' in recognition of the service of loyal Roman Catholics who answered the call by Pope Pius IX to defend The Vatican in 1860. A group of 14 returned Papal Zouaves, led by a missionary priest departed Montreal in 1871 and traveled by rail, stagecoach and on foot to land grants on the borders of the diocese of
Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...
, in the township of Marston, on the edge of
Lake Mégantic Lake Mégantic (, ) is a large body of water in Québec, Canada, located in the Appalachian Mountains near the U.S. border. It is a source of the Chaudière River which drains into the St Lawrence River at Québec City. The lake has a surface area ...
to build a new city dedicated to Pope Pius IX who they had served in Rome. There they discovered only a small logging camp building. Piopolis was officially founded on September 24, 1871. All but one of the original settlers left over the following decades. At its peak, the parish's population was in 1932 with 37 families and 523 souls. In 2011, la Halte des Zouaves was opened as a tourist stop on the Route des Sommets to display the history of the Municipality. The present day population is approximately 400 and supports several small businesses, the municipal office, and garage.


References

Municipalities in Quebec Incorporated places in Estrie Le Granit Regional County Municipality {{Estrie-geo-stub