Place d'armes of Montreal

The place d’armes of Montreal is by far one of oldest point of Montreal and also one having evolved the most during centuries. Place d’armes has seen Ville-Marie born and grow to become city of Montreal, This public place is also the oldest of the city having origins going back to 1729, date where name first appear on a map.

Open under the French regime when his location was the northern limit of the city close to the fortifications, the place d’armes owes its name from first battles between French and Iroquois (never officially established).

With time, many buildings succeeded around this places really attended by tourists like the most famous of all: Notre-Dame church. It is difficult to imagine that at the beginning this place was amongst other things bordered by two small cemeteries. It’s in 1895 that the monument to the glory of the founder of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve was inaugurated.

In the beginning of the XIX century, British are now making rules in Montreal, the place d’armes then become a banking center with the construction of the second building of the Bank of Montreal, Bank of Ontario as well as the bank Jacques Cartier.

The XX centuries have seen great transformations with the construction of skyscrapers such New York Life Insurance, first skyscraper in Montreal, as well as the Duluth building and the superb Aldred Building. The Sixties marked the end of the development of the place with the destruction of small buildings on west side to see the erection of two modern style skyscrapers: The National Bank and the appendix of the Bank of Montreal.

17 Pictures for this exhibition