Place d'Armes () is a
square
In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
of the
Old Montreal
Old Montreal (, ) is a historic List of neighbourhoods in Montreal, neighbourhood within the List of municipalities in Quebec, municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is b ...
quarter of
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, in Quebec, Canada anchored by
a monument in memory of
Paul de Chomedey, founder of Montreal. Buildings that surround it include
Notre-Dame Basilica,
Saint-Sulpice Seminary,
New York Life Building
The New York Life Building, also known as 51 Madison, is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company at 51 Madison Avenue in the Rose Hill, Manhattan, Rose Hill and NoMad, Manhattan, NoMad neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York Cit ...
,
Aldred Building,
Bank of Montreal head office
The Bank of Montreal's Head Office () is located on 119, rue Saint Jacques (119, Saint Jacques Street) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, across the Place d'Armes from the Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal), Notre-Dame Basilica in the Old Montreal neighbo ...
and
500 Place D'Armes.
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
The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (; PSS), also known as the Sulpicians, is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, where it was founded. The members of the Society add the ...
, 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.
The current dimensions of Place d’Armes correspond roughly to a plan begun in 1845 and completed in 1850, when Notre-Dame Street was completed. It was not until the demolition of the
Notre-Dame Church in 1830, and its bell tower in 1843, that the square would assume its current size.
Great Depression
During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, Mayor
Camillien Houde commissioned public works projects in Montreal, including more than 20
vespasienne
A pissoir (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. ...
s: public restrooms that locals had dubbed "Camilliennes." One such restroom was completed beneath Place d'Armes in 1934, designed by architect
Jean-Omer Marchand in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style, at a cost $51,255. The entire underground structure was 270 square metres. Two granite entrances allowed in
natural light. The bathrooms were built with glass block windows, relatively rare in 1930s Montreal.
1960s
There was a renovation of the square in the 1960s. The above-ground layout of the square would remain unchanged until 2009.
[
]
1980
By the 1940s, the Place d’Armes vespasienne had become run-down and dirty and was closed in 1980 for "moral and cleanliness reasons."[
]
2009–2011
The City of Montreal began renovating Place d'Armes again in the second half of 2009.
Work was completed in 2011 at a cost of $15.5 million. The work unearthed the former public washroom, along with the walls of the previous Notre-Dame Church and a water well
A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
called the "Puits Gadbois."[
]
2018
In 2018, after a successful campaign led by an Indigenous high school teacher, the Bank of Montreal removed a plaque to Paul de Chomedy celebrating how he personally killed a Haudenosaunee
The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
chief in March 1644. The teacher expressed criticism of how the removal was done, arguing that the BMO should have placed another plaque next to it telling the story from an Aboriginal viewpoint instead.
Monuments
George III Monument
A monument to George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
was erected in 1773 in Place d'Armes, the first known public monument in the city. On 1 May 1775, the bust of George III was found defaced in an act to denounce the Quebec Act
The Quebec Act 1774 ( 14 Geo. 3. c. 83) () was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which set procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec. One of the principal components of the act was the expansion of the province's territory t ...
which guarantees the use of the French language. A reward of 500 guineas
The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...
did not lead to the apprehension of the culprit. It disappeared soon after, during the American invasion of Montreal (November 1775 – June 1776), and was only found several years later at the bottom of a well in the square.[
]
Maisonneuve Monument
The square now features a monument in memory of Paul de Chomedey (1895), by artist Louis-Philippe Hébert, commemorating Chomedey's defense of the young French settlement against the Iroquois
The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
, 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 Basilica and the Saint-Sulpice Seminary. Other structures include the New York Life Building
The New York Life Building, also known as 51 Madison, is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company at 51 Madison Avenue in the Rose Hill, Manhattan, Rose Hill and NoMad, Manhattan, NoMad neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York Cit ...
(1887), Montreal's first high-rise; the Bank of Montreal head office
The Bank of Montreal's Head Office () is located on 119, rue Saint Jacques (119, Saint Jacques Street) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, across the Place d'Armes from the Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal), Notre-Dame Basilica in the Old Montreal neighbo ...
(1859), Canada's first bank; the Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
Aldred Building. (1931) and the International style
The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
500 Place D'Armes (1968).
Access
Located between Saint Jacques and Notre-Dame streets, Place d'Armes is a departure point for calèches offering horse-drawn tours of Old Montreal. The Metro station of the same name 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
The Montreal Metro (, ) is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system serving Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The metro, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), was inaugurated on October 14, 1966, during the tenure ...
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 French term for a place where a city's defenders assemble.[ Réaménagement de la place d'Armes 2009–2010]
References
External links
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{{Authority control
History of Montreal
Old Montreal
Armes, Place d'