Montreal [antikvár]

'v' M • INTRODUCTION Montreal is a city of subtle richness, quite unlike any other, that seems to defy definition. One half of all Québécois live in metropolitan Montreal, the cosmopolitan centre of a bastion of French culture in North America. A city of three million people, Montreal dominates the cultural and economic life of Quebec. What is it about Montreal that so captures people, visitors and residents alike? A unique combination of energy and sophistication accounts in part for Montreal's seductive joie de vivre, but the key to the city's allure may lie in its history The story of Montreal begins in 1535 with Jacques Cartier, who sailed from France in search of a route to Asia and discovered an island in the St Lawrence River. An Iroquois village called Hochelaga lay at the base of a 233-metre mountain which rose majestically from the middle of the island. From the summit of the mountain, which he named "Mont-Royal," Cartier could see miles of fertile plain through which the St Lawrence flowed. To his disappointment, however, the river was barred to the southwest by impassable rapids. These rapids were christened "Lachine," because of the belief that beyond them lay the route to China. Cartier had discovered a natural transportation centre, but it was not until the next century that France recognised its value. In 1609, Samuel de Champlain, the founder of New France, established a trading post just west of today's Place Royale in Old Montreal. Zealous missionaries followed, attempting to convert the natives to Christianity. The first real colony was established in 1642 by Paul de Chomedey sieur de Maisonneuve. He brought with him Jeanne Mance, who was destined to establish the first hospital, and a small group of settlers. The devoutly Catholic settlement was placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary and named "Ville-Marie de Montréal." Life for the early settlers was rugged and uncomfortable. A devastating flood nearly wiped out Ville-Marie during its first winter Maisonneuve planted a wooden cross atop Mont-Royal in thanksgiving for their survival. Today, a huge steel cross stands as a reminder of Montreal's earliest citizens. One of them, Father Vimont, ended his first Mass with the prophecy "You are a grain of mustard seed, that shall rise and grow till its branches overshadow the earth."