Montréal

I

Introduction

Montréal, city in Île-de-Montréal County, southern Québec province, Canada. The second largest city in Canada, Montréal is one of Canada’s leading commercial, industrial, and service centers. It is also a center of Canadian intellectual and cultural life and the chief cultural center of the French part of Canada. Most of the residents are of French descent and speak the French language; however, a significant minority speaks English, giving Montréal a bilingual character.

Founded by the French in 1642, Montréal is one of the oldest cities in North America. Its name comes from the old French form of the name of the mountain, Mount Royal, that dominates the city. Montréal has a northern climate, with a mean July temperature range of 15° to 26°C (60° to 79°F) and a mean January range of -15° to -6°C (5° to 22°F). With an average yearly snowfall of 214 cm (84 in), winter snowdrifts can become deep, and popular winter activities are skating, skiing, and ice hockey.

II

Montréal and Its Metropolitan Area

Montréal is located on Montréal Island in the Hochelaga Archipelago, where the Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence River. The archipelago has more than 320 islands and islets dispersed along three roughly parallel main waterways: the St. Lawrence River, the Rivière des Prairies (formerly called Back River in English) and the Rivière des Mille Îles. The boomerang-shaped Montréal Island is the largest island in the archipelago. About one-third of it is occupied by the city proper, which covers 177 sq km (68 sq mi). The Montréal Urban Community, a regional association of 29 municipalities, extends over the whole island and a few nearby islands. It covers a land area of 494 sq km (191 sq mi). The metropolitan area is much larger, including other islands and spilling over to the north and south shores of the St. Lawrence River. The metropolitan area covers a land area of 4,024 sq km (1,554 sq mi) and is divided among 102 municipalities. The most populous suburban cities are Laval and Longueuil. More than 20 road and rail bridges link Montréal Island with surrounding communities.

Mount Royal, with three summits, rises over the city to a height of 234 m (768 ft) above sea level. One summit is crowned with an illuminated cross. The mountain vista is protected by a city bylaw forbidding downtown skyscrapers to rise higher than the crest. On top of the mountain is the magnificent Mount Royal Park, comprising 215 hectares (532 acres). Created in 1874, it was designed by famous American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Two large adjoining cemeteries, one Roman Catholic and one Protestant, add to the beauty of the site. The slope of the mountain is extended by a series of natural terraces going down to the river.

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For centuries Montréalers have had a peculiar way of describing their island’s geography. The direction they call north is in fact west-northwest, east is really north-northeast, and so on. For simplicity, this description follows that usage. Most of the city streets are arranged in a grid pattern. The major thoroughfare, St. Lawrence Boulevard (popularly known as The Main), crosses the island from south to north and was traditionally the border between Francophone (French-speaking) east Montréal and the Anglophone (English-speaking) west part. Cross streets in the city are named and numbered as being east and west of that boulevard. The heart of the city lies between the mountain and the St. Lawrence River. The original site was along the river in an area now called Old Montréal. It is the main tourist attraction of the city, containing numerous landmark buildings. Few of them date back to the French regime (pre-1760) because fires and demolitions have taken a toll over the centuries. Among the oldest, the Saint Sulpice Seminary (dating to the 1680s) and the Château de Ramezay (1705), now a historical museum, are fine examples of French architecture in the colonial era.

French influence lasted for a time after the British conquest of 1760, as shown by some late 18th-century houses. British influence came to prevail, however, and most of Old Montréal is in fact a Victorian Style city, probably the largest and most interesting one in North America. Two buildings that dominated the landscape in the mid-19th century are still visible today: the Notre Dame Basilica (1829) and the Bonsecours Market (1840s). The basilica stands on the Place d’Armes, the city’s most historic square, whose buildings tell the story of Montréal’s institutional and commercial architecture from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Old Montréal was saved from the cycle of demolition and reconstruction by the development of a new, modern central business district located to the northwest around Boulevard René-Lévesque. Starting in the 1950s with the building of Place Ville-Marie, an office complex whose cross-shaped main tower is a landmark of modern architecture, numerous skyscrapers were built. Another famous Montréal feature also began with Place Ville-Marie: the underground city. Underground passages link office complexes, parking facilities, boutiques, and galleries with railway and subway (Métro) stations, hotels, restaurants, department stores, cultural institutions, and the convention center (Palais des Congrès). With four distinct clusters, the underground city boasts 29 km (18 mi) of walkways.

In the heart of the central business district is Rue Sainte-Catherine (Saint Catherine Street), which is the center of Montréal’s nightlife thanks to its numerous cinemas, restaurants, and nightclubs. In fact, unlike many North American cities, downtown Montréal is not deserted after office hours; it remains lively, attracting crowds of people.

The site of the central business district was formerly the Golden Square Mile, where the wealthiest Montréalers lived 100 years ago. Many of their fine mansions can still be seen, especially north of Sherbrooke Street. Farther east, Saint Lawrence Boulevard is lined with ethnic shops and restaurants testifying to successive waves of Jewish, Italian, Greek, and Portuguese immigrants. Next to that area, the Francophone district of Plateau Mont-Royal extends for a few kilometers on both sides of Saint Denis Street, which is renowned for its restaurants, its exclusive shops, and its French-language bookstores. This is the heart of Francophone Montréal. The streets are lined with duplexes and triplexes, many adorned with the outdoor staircases that were typical of Montréal until the 1920s.

III

Population

Since the early 1970s, the Montréal metropolitan area has grown at a very slow pace, gaining less than 300,000 people in two decades. The city proper is the second most populous in Canada, with 1,039,534 residents at the 2001 census. The metropolitan area, with 3,635,700 people in 2005, is second to metropolitan Toronto, Ontario.

For most of Montréal’s history, nearly all its people were of French or British descent. This has changed with immigration to Canada, and today, one-sixth of Montréal’s people have come from another country. Asia, the Caribbean islands (mostly Haiti), Central and South America, and Africa are now strongly represented. Most Montréalers, however, are still of European descent. According to the 1991 census, more than half (59 percent) are wholly French. Another 5.4 percent are wholly British. Another 4.2 percent are both British and French, and 5.5 percent are British or French mixed with some other origin. Other European origins make up 14.2 percent, the largest group being Italian, followed by Jewish, Greek, and Portuguese. Just over 6 percent are of Asian or African ancestry, and less than 1 percent of Central or South American origin. Blacks, some of whom are included in the other groups mentioned, make up 2 to 3 percent of the population.

Data on mother tongues provide a better view of the language distribution. French is the language of the majority: two persons out of every three claim French as their mother tongue. English is the first language of 14.2 percent of Montréalers. Other significant mother tongues are Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic, and Chinese.

Accounting for more than three-fourths (77.6 percent) of the population, Roman Catholics are the largest religious group, and Montréal is the seat of an archbishop of that church. The various Protestant churches account for 8.2 percent of religious membership, followed by the Jewish (3.1 percent), Eastern non-Christian (2.9 percent), and Eastern Orthodox (2.8 percent) religions. Another 5.4 percent claim no religious affiliation.

IV

Education and Culture

Montréal has a large number of private schools, most of them partially funded by the province. Like the rest of Québec province, Montréal has two public school systems, one for French speakers and one for English speakers. The Charter of the French Language (1977), known as Bill 101, restricts access to English-language schools and requires children of immigrants to be educated in French. As a result, French-language schools became increasingly multiethnic.

With four universities, Montréal is one of the leading centers of higher education in Canada. There are two English-language institutions: McGill University (1821) and Concordia University (1974). Their French-language counterparts are the Université de Montréal (1876) and the University of Québec at Montréal (1969). Both private and state universities are funded by the province on a similar footing. The metropolitan area also has 16 public community colleges and 15 private institutions that offer some college-level training.

Prominent among the city’s museums is the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, with significant collections of European and Canadian paintings and other specialized collections. The works of 20th-century Québec artists are well represented at the Musée d’Art Contemporain (Museum of Contemporary Art). The Canadian Center for Architecture is a world-class museum and research center for the study of architecture. Pointe-à-Callière Museum is devoted to Montréal’s history and archaeology. The McCord Museum of Canadian History has substantial holdings in ethnology. History is also the main feature of Château de Ramezay. The Biodôme has an environmental focus—it replicates four ecosystems of the Americas. La Biosphère focuses on water and the Saint Lawrence River/Great Lakes ecosystem. Many other smaller, specialized museums operate in the city. The Cosmodôme, a space museum, is located in suburban Laval.

The Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec (National Library of Québec) is in Montréal and holds the largest collection of printed works by Québec authors. The Library of the City of Montréal has branches throughout the city and is noted for its collection of works on Canada. There are many other libraries, including the Jewish Public Library and those in the universities.

Numerous dance companies and French-language theater companies perform in Montréal. The Montréal Symphony Orchestra has an international reputation, and the city also has the Montréal Metropolitan Orchestra. Place des Arts is the main performing arts center and boasts the largest concert hall in the city.

Summertime is a festive season, with one major event after another. The biggest is the International Jazz Festival in late June, but the Just for Laughs Festival of comedy shows in July and the Francopholies (a French-language song and music festival) and Montréal World Film Festival in August also attract substantial crowds.