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Quebec City’s Old Town (Vieux-Quebec) is the only North American city whose walls still exist. This historic district of Old Quebec was declared one of the Seven Wonders of Canada and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inside the walls the area around Rue St. Jean is called the Latin Quarter. It was the former home of Laval University, a seminary where classes were taught in Latin. The original Latin Quarter is located on the Left Bank in Paris where the Sorbonne University was founded. The main campus of Laval university is outside the walls, but students still live, eat and shop on the winding, narrow, cobblestoned streets of Quebec City’s Latin Quarter. The lively atmosphere of its bakeries, restaurants, bistros and funky stores carries with it the image of a way of life that’s colourful, vibrant, intellectual and bohemian. |
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Basilique-Cathédrale Notre-Dame-De-Québec 20 rue de Buade, Latin Quarter Quebec City The parish of Notre-Dame is the oldest in North America. It was built on this site in 1647. Throughout the centuries the Cathedral was destroyed twice by fire and suffered battle damage during fighting between British and French armies in 1759. The interior is appropriately grandiose and richly decorated with impressive works of art, though most of the basilica's treasures didn't survive the 1922 fire that left behind only the walls and foundations. The church was rebuilt and repaired. Each replacement was bigger than the last until it reached the size you see today - a structure completed in 1925. Everyone from four governors of New France to archbishops and cardinals are buried in the crypt below. Francois de Laval, Quebec’s first bishop is buried in the Cathedral. |
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| Hotel du Vieux Quebec
This hotel is the only hotel in the Latin Quarter and is one of the few Quebec City hotels located within-the-gates of Old Quebec. The original stone walls date back to 1767. Each of the 50 rooms is decorated with prints by local Quebec artists. As happened to many grand buildings in Quebec, in 1895 part of the building was destroyed by fire. The building was rebuilt to continue its illustrious saga. As it was so centrally located, at the bequest and with the assistance of the City of Quebec a place of entertainment was built. The St George Hall had arched doors and extensive patios on its second floor. Rebuilding as a hotel, the architects used the original drawings and plans as the design of the first building was unique and not in keeping with other structures in the Latin Quarter. |
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The Good Shepherd Museum (Musée Bon-Pasteur)
A hidden treasure in the heart in the Latin Quarter of Quebec City. Housed in a beautiful historic building dating from 1878 and restored in 1991 this modern institution presents on three floors, an important page in the history of social and religious women of Quebec. The museum reveals the plight of outcast women and abandoned children in the mid-nineteenth century, in a city struggling with social problems caused by mass immigration and multiple fires. It introduces three Québec City figures who defended the excluded women: Marie Fitzbach, George Manly Muir and Marie Métivier. You will find period furniture and paintings on site plus videos on The Good Shepherd Sisters which was founded in Québec City in 1850. Personalized tours in both French and English. |
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Cathedral Of The Holy Trinity 31 rue des Jardins, Latin Quarter This elegantly handsome Anglican cathedral was the first built outside the British Isles, oak was imported from Windsor Castle's 'Royal Forest' just to make the pews. The royal box is in the upper left balcony if you are facing the altar. (Look for the royal coat of arms.) The bell tower, 47m-high, competes for attention with the nearby Basilique Notre-Dame. A guide is usually around in the summer and gives free 10-minute tours. Built from 1800 to 1804, it was designed by two officers from the British army's military engineering corps and modeled on St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, England. Upon its completion, King George III sent the cathedral a treasure trove of objects, everything from candlesticks to chalices to silver trays. The elaborateness of the gifts heading towards the New World sent London's chattering classes atwitter. |
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La Rue du Tresor Located between rue de Buade and rue Ste Anne, Latin Quarter Quebec City Begun in the 60’s this open-air gallery is a “must-see”, lively outdoor art gallery where 36 local artists and their representatives display original souvenirs and their works. |
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Musée des Ursulines 12 rue Donnacona, Latin Quarter The fascinating story of the Ursuline nuns' lives and influence in the 17th and 18th centuries is told in this thoughtful, well set out museum. The sisters established the first girls' school on the continent in 1641 educating both Aboriginal and French girls. The Ursulines were also expert embroiderers and many examples of their work are on display. There's a lovely chapel on site. It dates from 1902 but retains some interiors from 1723. Marie de l'Incarnation, the founder, was one of the most intriguing figures from the order. Leaving a young son in France after she was widowed, she joined the Ursulines and moved to New France and lived well into old age. She taught herself Aboriginal languages and her frequent and eloquent letters to her son back in France are held by historians to be some of the richest and most valuable material available to scholars studying life in the French colony. |
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Musée de l'Amérique Française 2 Côte de la Fabrique, Latin Quarter Quebec City Right on the grounds of the Séminaire de Québec (the Québec Seminary) is Canada's oldest museum. This entertaining and educational institution exhibits artifacts relating to French settlement in the New World. It's not dry and gives testimony to the establishment and the dynamism of the French culture in North America. Today's museum has brilliantly atmospheric exhibits on life in the seminary during the colonial era as well as religious artifacts and temporary exhibitions on subjects like endangered species. The seminary priests were avid travelers and collectors and there are some magnificent displays of the scientific objects they brought back with them from Europe like old Italian astronomical equipment. The exhibits are capped by a wonderful short film on New World history from a Quebecer's perspective. If the gates to the left of the basilica are closed, enter the grounds at 9 Rue le l'Université. |
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Francois-Xavier Garneau House 14, rue Saint-Flavien, Latin Quarter Quebec City Magnificent 19th century mansion of Old Québec is formerly the home of Quebec’s first French Canadian historian François-Xavier Garneau. Be charmed by the elegance of this bourgeois home’s Victorian furnishing, rare books, gramophone music from the past and the widows-walk on the rooftop. The extensive private collection features examples of the intellectual activities prevalent during the era and more than 50 objects originating from the famous wrecked steamer, the Empress of Ireland.
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