February 3, 2016: Another Notre Dame Cathedral

I’ve come across at least a dozen Notre Dame Cathedrals in several countries during my travels, and I’m sure there are many more.  We’re all familiar with the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, home to the fictional Hunchback.  I know far fewer folks have visited its namesake in Montreal.  But it’s also a destination worth seeing.  These images are from the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. 

Dedicated to Our Lady the Blessed Virgin – “Notre Dame” – the first small chapel was built here in the early 17th century and run by the Jesuits.  The Sulpician Fathers followed the Jesuits and began construction of a larger church.  By the early 1800s, a still large facility was needed and the church that still stands was designed and constructed between 1824 and 1829.  The bell towers were completed in 1843. 

(Statue in the square outside the Cathedral, with the Bank of Montreal Building across the street)

The church is an important Montreal landmark and you can visit and tour it — very interesting to see and do.  The guides will point to the bench on which Celine Dion sat when her baby was baptized, or where the first Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s coffin was placed, and so on.  It’s a place where important moments in Canadian history have unfolded.