MONTREAL, QUEBEC - NOTRE DAME BASILICA AND MORE

Wednesday, June 24th, 2015

Day 324

Miles Traveled: 0

Total Miles Traveled: 4745

  Today was a Quebec holiday, Saint John Baptiste Day.  Always celebrated on June 24th, it is a national holiday celebrating the birth of St. John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah.  It is still celebrated as religious feast day in several countries.

  Given the day, it was very appropriate that our itinerary this day was to tour the Notre-Dame Basilica.  The parish started about the time Montreal was founded.  The initial congregation worshiped in a modest wooden chapel.  As the congregation grew in size, so did the churches.  In 1824 construction for the Notre-Dame Basilica was started.  James O'Donnell, an Irish protestant living in New York, was hired as the architect.  He later moved to Montreal and converted to Catholicism.  The basilica was completed in 1829, but, towers were added in the early 1840's.

Notre Dame Basilica

  The building's existing interior decor was done in the late 1870's.  However, the stained glass on the ground floor was done in 1929 for its centenary celebration.  The scenes depict Montreal's social and religious history.

Inside the Notre Dame Basilica looking towards the front

  The altarpiece sculptures around the crucifix represent Melchisedech offering bread and wine, Moses placing an urn of manna in the Ark, Abraham sacrificing his son, and Aaron sacrificing a lamb.  Above the crucifix, Mary is being crowned by her Son.  Six surrounding statues represent Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The Last Supper is seen on the front of the altar-tomb.

Altar of Notre Dame Basilica

  The pulpit was very ornate and built between 1883-1885.

Pulpit of Notre Dame Basilica

  The organ in the balcony at the back of the basilica was built in 1891.  After several modifications, it now has 4 keyboards and approximately 7,000 pipes.  On the tour today, we were not able to proceed to the balcony.  We were able to admire all the pipes from the ground level of the sanctuary.

back of sanctuary of Notre Dame Basilica - with pipe organ in balcony

  In 1888, an additional chapel, called Chapel of Notre-Dame du Sacre-Couer, was built in the back of the basilica.  Unfortunately, in December of 1978, a fire occurred and almost entirely destroyed the chapel.  It was rebuilt and completed in 1982.  At its front is an impressive bronze sculpture made up of 32 bronze panels which were cast in England.  The sculpture symbolizes the march of humankind towards the Holy Trinity.

Chapel of Notre-Dame due acre-Couer with bronze sculpture at altar

 For more about the Notre-Dame Basilica go to:

:http://www.basiliquenddm.org/en/basilica/history.aspx

  After completing our tour of the Notre-Dame Basilica and stopping for lunch, we continued to stroll around Montreal admiring the old architectural buildings.  A few are shown below.

Bank of Montreal - Museum

Centre d'histoire de Montreal museum (Montreal Center of History)
used to be an old firehouse

Montreal City Hall

  We checked out some of the shops at The Marche Bonsecours (Bonsecours Market).  In 1849, the building was used as the parliament of the United Canada.  From 1852-1878, it was used as Montreal's City Hall.  And, after that, for a century was the city's main public market.  The building has been fully restored and modernized and now used as a home for boutiques, cafes, and event halls.

Bonsecour Market

  We ended our walk along Place Jacques-Cartier.  In the 19th century, it was a public open air market place.  Today, it continues with that tradition.  Many vendors have booths along the street with food, art, jewelry, etc., and, often, there are performers providing entertainment.  We enjoyed the music of an instrumental group.

Place Jacques-Cartier

Instrumental street performers at Place Jacques-Cartier

  We really enjoyed our visit to Montreal and only scratched the surface of all there is to see and do.  Both Old Montreal and the entire city have a lot to offer visitors.

For Old Montreal:

http://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/tour/eng/0cartea.htm
http://gocanada.about.com/od/montreal/tp/Old_Montreal.htm
For entire Montreal:
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/What-To-Do/Attractions#&&/wEXAwUGU29ydEJ5BQROYW1lBQpTZWFyY2hQYWdlBQExBQ5SZXN1bHRzUGVyUGFnZQUCMTA=
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attractions-g155032-Activities-Montreal_Quebec.html