Québec (city)

I

Introduction

Québec (city), capital of the province of Québec, Canada, in Québec County, located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Saint Charles rivers in the southern part of the province. Québec is dominated by a dramatic promontory, Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond), situated 98 m (320 ft) above a narrowing of the St. Lawrence River; the city’s name is from an Algonquian word meaning “where the river narrows.” It is the only fortified city in North America north of Mexico and was chosen as a world heritage site by the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Québec has long, cold winters and short, mild summers. The average daily temperature range is -17°C (1°F) to -8°C (18°F) in January and 13°C (56°F) to 25°C (77°F) in July.

II

Québec and its Metropolitan Area

Québec proper covers a land area of 89 sq km (34 sq mi); its metropolitan area covers 3,150 sq km (1,216 sq mi). Québec is considered one of the most beautiful cities in North America and contains some of the continent’s oldest houses, streets, and churches. The old houses have thick stone walls, steep copper roofs, and ax-hewn wooden beams. The oldest street in Canada, Rue de Notre Dame (built in 1615), is located on a narrow strip of land between a cliff and the port, in a district known as the Basse-Ville (Lower Town). French author Louis Hémon, writing about the old part of the city, has described its layout as a collection of narrow, winding streets that do not sacrifice an iota to the rectilinear standards of a new continent.

Above the cliff in the Haute-Ville (Upper Town), settlers built the first colonial government buildings and religious institutions in Canada, such as the Ursuline Convent (1639) and the Québec Seminary (1663), both of which are still intact. On the highest point above the river is the Citadel (begun 1820), which gave Québec its 19th-century nickname, “Gibraltar of North America.” From there, Dufferin Terrace, a 427-m (1,400-ft) boardwalk, follows the cliff edge past the Château Frontenac (1893), a château-style hotel built by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The parliament buildings, home of the National Assembly (provincial legislature), lie just outside the 17th-century Saint Louis Gate. Beyond these buildings are the Plains of Abraham, now part of the 89-hectare (220-acre) Battlefields Park, where the British defeated the French in 1759. Other points of interest include the church of Nôtre-Dame-des-Victoires (1688, restored 1759), the church of Nôtre-Dame-de-Québec (1650), and an Anglican cathedral (1793). Hotels, convention centers, and office buildings extend north and west toward various suburbs, including Sainte-Foy, Cap-Rouge, and Charlesbourg.

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III

Population

Québec proper had a population of 169,076 at the 2001 census, a slight increase from the 1991 census figure of 167,517. The population of its metropolitan area was 696,400 in 2001, a 7.4 percent increase from 645,550 in 1991. The population is overwhelmingly French and Roman Catholic: In the 1991 census, 96 percent of metropolitan-area residents reported that French was their primary language, 90.4 percent reported that they were ethnically French, and 94.3 percent were members of the Roman Catholic religion. The English language was a distant second at 1.7 percent, those with British ancestry were 2.3 percent, and the Protestant religions were 1.7 percent. Those reporting “no religion” totaled 3.4 percent.

IV

Education and Culture

Québec has long been an important educational center. Laval University (Université Laval), chartered in 1852, is an outgrowth of the Grande Séminaire (1663), the first Canadian institution of higher learning. Both Laval and the Télé-université campus of the Université du Québec are located in the suburb of Sainte-Foy. The metropolitan area also has eight community colleges, which in the province of Québec are known as CEGEPs (Collèges d’Enseignement Général et Professionel, or Colleges of General and Occupational Education). The city’s public elementary and secondary schools, like others throughout the province, are divided into French-speaking and English-speaking school systems.

Québec is an important religious center. Its Roman Catholic bishopric (1674) is the oldest in North America north of Mexico, and there are more churches and shrines per square kilometer here than in Rome. The nearby healing shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré attracts thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims each year.

The city contains numerous museums, such as the Museum of Civilization, designed by Israeli-born, Canadian-trained architect Moshe Safdie; Québec Museum in Battlefields Park; and the Musée de l’Amérique Française in the old Québec Seminary. The Grand Théâtre is the home of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.

In sports, the city hosts the Rafales of the International Hockey League. Several downhill and cross-country ski centers are located just outside the metropolitan area. For two weeks each February the city is taken over by the Winter Carnival, which features a grueling canoe race across the usually semi-frozen St. Lawrence River.

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