Article: Small mountain in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
George-Étienne Cartier Monument and Mount Royal's eastern slope
type:mountain_region:CA-QC_scale:100000 NTS Intrusive stock
Jacques Cartier, 1535(first European)
Mount Royal (, ) is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The best-known hypothesis for the origin of the name Montreal is that the mountain is the namesake for the city.
The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachian Mountains. It gave its Latin name, Mons Regius, to the Monteregian chain. The mountain consists of three peaks: Colline de la Croix (or Mont Royal proper) at , Colline d'Outremont (or Mount Murray, in the borough of Outremont) at , and Westmount Summit at elevation above mean sea level.
Geology
Location of Mount Royal in Montreal.
Mount Royal is the deep extension of a vastly eroded ancient volcanic complex, which was probably active about 125 million years ago.
The mountain, along with the other mountains of the Monteregian Hills, was formed when the North American Plate moved westward over the New England hotspot. By a process known as intrusion, magma intruded into the sedimentary rocks underneath the area, producing at least eight igneous stocks. The main rock type is a gabbro composed of pyroxene, olivine and variable amounts of plagioclase. During and after the main stage of intrusion, the gabbros and surrounding rocks were intruded by a series of volcanic dikes and sills. Subsequently, the surrounding softer sedimentary rock was eroded, leaving behind the resistant igneous rock that forms the mountain
The mineral montroyalite, discovered in Montreal, is named after the mountain that provided the definition sample.
History https://www.lemontroyal.qc.ca/en/mount-royal/history-of-mount-royal
Circa 3000 BC, the mountain's imposing presence in the centre of the island, views of the river and majestic forests made it a choice location for indigenous peoples travelling through the region. The mountain was also a rich source of hornfels, sharp-edged rocks used instead of flint to make tools and weapons for hunting. Over time, indigenous populations used the mountain's wood to build villages and its fertile land to grow their main agricultural crops—corn, squash and beans—known as the Three Sisters.
The first European to scale the mountain was Jacques Cartier, guided there in 1535 by the people of the village of Hochelaga. He named it in honour of his patron, Francis I of France. He wrote in his journal: "And among these fields is situated and seated the said town of Hochelaga, near to and adjoining a mountain.... We named this mountain Mount Royal."
One theory is that the name of the Island of Montréal derives from Mont Réal, as the mountain's name was spelled in Middle French (Mont Royal in Modern French). However, Cartier's 1535 diary entry refers to "le mont Royal." Another argument, mentioned by the Government of Canada on its website concerning Canadian place names, is that the name Montréal was adopted because a Venetian map from 1556 used the Italian name of the mountain, "Monte Real." The name was first applied to the island and was unofficially applied to the city, formerly named Ville-Marie, by the 18th century.
In 1643, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve made a pilgrimage to the top of the mountain to fulfill a vow made in the winter season on occasion of a great flood that swept up to the town palisades.
In 1876, land owner and farmer James Swail began planning residential subdivisions on the western slope of Mount Murray, in what is now the Cote-des-Neiges district. In 1906, a large housing development was started in the area, called Northmount Heights, with homes built along what is now Decelles Street by developer Northmount Land Company. Much of this area has since been expropriated by the Université de Montréal.
In 1914–1918, the Mount Royal Tunnel was dug under the mountain by the Canadian Northern Railway, a predecessor of the Canadian National Railway. It is currently used by the AMT's Deux-Montagnes commuter rail line.
The area was briefly considered as a candidate for the site of Expo 67 before the exposition grounds were ultimately built on adjoining islands in the Saint Lawrence River.
For the 1976 Summer Olympics, the park itself hosted the individual road race cycling event. The hilly roads of the park have subsequently been used for the 1974 UCI Road Cycling World Championships, and the annual Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal cycling race.
Geography Topography
Mount Royal is about 4 kilometers ( miles) east to west and 2.5 kilometers ( miles) north to south. The mountain emerges from the plains occupied by Montreal and neighboring regions.
Road networks
Two roads cross the territory:
The Camillien-Houde Way (named Remembrance Road on part of its route)
Côte-des-Neiges Road Natural heritage Fauna
Mount Royal is home to many animal species including gray squirrel, raccoon, fox, marmot, striped skunk, bee and various species of birds.
Flora
From the point of view of the flora, the mountain shelters a set of natural spaces and semi-natural rich in trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants
Mount Royal Cross
The first Mount Royal Cross was placed there in 1643 by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of the city, in fulfillment of a vow he made to the Virgin Mary when praying to her to stop a disastrous flood. Today, the mountain is crowned by a illuminated cross, installed in 1924 by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and now owned by the city. It was converted to fibre-optic light in 1992, and then to LEDs in 2009. The cross is usually lit in white, but can now be changed to any colour, including the purple traditionally used upon the death of a pope.
Beside the cross, a plaque marks the placement of a time capsule in 1992, during Montréal's 350th birthday celebration. It contains messages and drawings from 12,000 children, depicting their visions for the city in the year 2142, when the capsule is scheduled to be opened.
Mount Royal Park
Chalet du Mont-Royal @ Mount Royal @ Ville-Marie @ Montreal (30414889885).jpg
Mount Royal Chalet, Kondiaronk Belvedere, part of the Mount Royal Park.
STM Bus: 11, 80, 129, 165, 365, 480 and 711
The mountain is the site of Mount Royal Park ( Parc du Mont-Royal ), one of Montreal's largest greenspaces. The park was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (who also co-designed New York City's Central Park) and was inaugurated in 1876, although not completed to his design.
Olmsted had planned to emphasize the mountainous topography through the use of vegetation. Shade trees at the bottom of the carriage path would resemble a valley. As the visitor went higher, the vegetation would get more sparse to give the illusion of exaggerated height. However, Montreal suffered a depression in the mid-1870s and many of Olmsted's plans were abandoned. The carriage way was built, but it was done hastily and without regards to the original plan. None of the vegetation choices were followed.
The park contains two belvederes, the more prominent of which is the Kondiaronk Belvedere, a semicircular plaza with a Mount Royal Chalet overlooking Downtown Montreal. Built in 1906, it is named for the Petun chief Kondiaronk, whose influence led to the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701.
Other features of the park are Beaver Lake (a small artificial lake), a snow tube and toboggan run, cross-country skiing trails, a sculpture garden and Smith House, an interpretive centre. At the foot of the hill, overlooking Park Avenue, the park features the George-Étienne Cartier Monument (home to the Tam-Tams) and a gazebo (more properly, a bandstand) which has been named in honour of Mordecai Richler.
The lush forest has been badly damaged, both by Mayor Drapeau's so-called morality cuts of the 1950s and by the Ice Storm of 1998, but has since largely recovered. The forest is a green jewel rising above downtown Montreal and is known for its beautiful autumn foliage as well as its extensive hiking and cross-country ski trails. Biking is restricted to the main gravel roads.
From 1885 to 1920, the Mount Royal Funicular Railway brought sightseers to its peak. After it ceased service, Montreal's No. 11 streetcar brought visitors to the peak until 1959. A roadway named for longtime but controversial former mayor Camillien Houde now bisects the mountain, although Houde had been opposed to the idea of putting a road through the park.
The park, cemeteries, and several adjacent parks and institutions have been combined into the Mount Royal Natural and Historical District (Arrondissement historique et naturel du Mont-Royal) by the provincial government in order to legally protect the rich cultural and natural heritage of the region.
Parc Tiohtià:ke Otsira'kéhne
In June 2017, during the 375th anniversary of Montreal, the city formally named the greenspace surrounding the Outremont peak Parc Tiohtià:ke Otsira'kéhne, Mohawk for "the place of the big fire," reflecting how the hill had been used for a fire beacon by First Nations people. It has an area of .
Wintertime
Mount Royal Park currently hosts a snow tube and toboggan run on one of the former alpine ski slopes, as well as 7 groomed cross-country ski and snowshoe trails which total , with equipment rental available onsite.
One of the most popular activities to do on Beaver Lake is to skate; this activity is free if you have your own equipment.
The former alpine ski slope featured a T-bar and a drop. Mechanical lift devices were first installed in Mount Royal Park in 1945. In the 1940s, there were two and a half miles of ski slopes available. A ski shop was first installed in the park in 1938. Prior to that, in the 1920s, one of the best ski jumps in Canada was the one on Mount Royal, near Côte-des-Neiges.
Founded in 1840, the now-defunct Montreal Snow Shoe Club, with members drawn from some of Montreal's prominent businessmen, would meet each week during the winter at nightfall on Sherbrooke Street near McGill College Avenue to snowshoe through Mount Royal Park, lit by torchlight. Club members began wearing blue tuques on their outings around 1870. Recently, the tradition has been revived as the Tuques Bleues celebration by the Les amis de la montagne, a charitable organization that works to protect and preserve the park.
Tam-Tams
In the summer, Mount Royal hosts a popular activity known as Tam-Tams, or the "Tam-Tam Jam", whereby a number of Montrealers and visitors play hand drums (such as djembes) on the east slope of the mountain, near the George-Étienne Cartier Monument. The Sunday afternoon gatherings attract people of various backgrounds. Often, dozens of tam-tam players perform their art at the same time, encouraging others to dance. In addition, many children and adults participate nearby in a battle with foam-padded weapons.
The Tam-tams began in the late 1970s with a workshop on African drumming at a jazz bar on Ontario Street. It is not organized by the municipal authorities. Despite initial resistance by participants, the city now intervenes in the event, restricting commercial activity to registered members in designated areas and assigning police and first aid technicians to ensure the safety of those present. Although initially controversial in light of the event's communal and countercultural vibe (as well as a permissive attitude towards then-illegal cannabis use), the police presence has not led to conflict.
Jeanne-Mance Park
Facing the mountain across Park Avenue is Jeanne-Mance Park. A popular recreational area, Jeanne-Mance Park features a playground, a wading pool, tennis courts, various sports fields, and in winter, a skating rink.
Transmission tower
The park is also home to the CBC's Mount Royal transmitter facility, which comprises two large buildings (one used primarily by the CBC (for its 2 Montreal stations, CBMT-DT and CBFT-DT) and one used by the private television stations) and a very short (about ) candelabra tower, from which nearly all of Montreal's television and FM radio stations broadcast. Because of the proximity of this tower to public areas of the park, in recent years significant concerns have been raised about radio-frequency radiation exposure; at several points formerly accessible to park users near the tower, radiation was found to be significantly higher than that permitted for the general public.
The "shortness" indicated above was dictated by the maximum allowable height (1100 feet above sea level) dictated by the federal Department of Transport because of the proximity to the flight path to Trudeau Airport nearby. The engineering challenge was to combine all the desired antennas in the limited space between the mountain top and 1100 feet above sea level, which led to the "candelabra" design.
Adjacent landmarks
Outside the park, Mount Royal's slopes are also home to such Montreal landmarks as Saint Joseph's Oratory, Canada's largest church; McGill University; the Montreal General Hospital; McGill's Molson Stadium, home to the CFL's Montreal Alouettes; the McTavish reservoir; Université de Montréal; the École Polytechnique de Montréal; the Îlot-Trafalgar-Gleneagles historic block; and some well-off residential neighbourhoods such as Upper Westmount and Upper Outremont.
See also Horace Baugh
Holy Mountain, a National Film Board of Canada website devoted to the mountain
Royal eponyms in Canada
References External links Mount Royal Activities
Welcome to Mount Royal
Quick overview
Tamtams Web site https://web.archive.org/web/20080512005402/http://tamtamsmontreal.net/english.html
Directory of Quebec's cultural heritage – Mount Royal
Walk to Mount Royal Summits |
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History of Mount Royal
Find out why this small mountain at the heart of Montréal occupies such a big place in the city’s history, heritage and identity.
Home Mount Royal History Circa 3000 B.C.
Shaped by retreating glaciers thousands of years ago, the mountain is, in fact, a cluster of three hills.
Its imposing presence in the centre of the island, views of the river and majestic forests made it a choice location for indigenous peoples travelling through the region thousands of years ago. The mountain was also a rich source of hornfels, sharp-edged rocks used instead of flint to make tools and weapons for hunting.
Over time, indigenous populations would have used the mountain’s wood to build villages and its fertile land to grow their main agricultural crops—corn, squash and beans—known as the Three Sisters.
Like many other mountains, Mount Royal was undoubtedly a place of great importance in the cultural and sacred landscape of the people.
1535 : Jacques Cartier Deems the Mountain Royal
On his second journey to the New World, Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River where he was welcomed by the indigenous villagers of Hochelaga who lead him up a nearby mountain covered with magnificent woods and offering impressive views.
In awe of the luxuriant landscape, or perhaps in honour of his king, Jacques Cartier named this mountain
“Mont Royal”.
1643 : A Cross on the Mountain
On December 24, 1642, a torrential downpour threatened the colony of Ville-Marie. Fearing the rising waters of the St. Lawrence River, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, prayed to the Blessed Virgin, promising her a cross on the mountain if she spared them from a flood.
His prayers were answered and, in the early days of January, Maisonneuve carried a wooden cross on his shoulders to Mount Royal.
1821 : Mount Royal, Home to Higher Education
Montréal was expanding at a rapid rate, and its flourishing population began to settle down in the surrounding countryside.
The mountain’s fresh air, fertile soil and bucolic landscape attracted rich businessmen such as James McGill. Having himself attended the University of Glasgow, this Scottish trader deplored the lack of teaching institutions in Montréal and, upon his death, bequeathed his domain on the mountain so that it would become a school.
In 1821, McGill University was established on the mountain, becoming one of Canada’s first academic institutions.
Education began to thrive on Mount Royal as
Collège de Montréal
moved to Sherbrooke West in 1870 and Collège Notre-Dame to Côte-des-Neiges in 1881. The
Université de Montréal
inaugurated its new campus on the mountain in 1943.
1852 : Mount Royal on Heaven’s Doorstep
In this thriving city now the metropolis of the country, the pressing issue of what to do with the departed could no longer be ignored.
For reasons of hygiene and lack of space, it was decided to bury the dead away from the urban centre, in large cemeteries on the mountain. As of 1852, the Mount Royal Cemetery welcomed Anglophone Protestant souls in a magnificent garden-inspired landscape.
Established in 1854, the Catholic cemetery Notre-Dame-des-Neiges evokes a classical spirit and taste for nature in a French style inspired by the
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
in Paris. Today, it is the largest cemetery in Canada.
The Jewish population also headed to Mount Royal to bury its dead. In 1854, the
Shearith Israel
cemetery (cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue) was established and, in 1863, the
Shaar Hashomayim cemetery.
The mountain’s new vocation as a memorial site subsequently allowed large sections of it to avoid the threat of urbanization.
Prehistoric Cemetery
History reveals that indigenous peoples also buried their dead on the mountain in prehistoric times. The discovery of several burial sites at various locations on Mount Royal is proof of the mountain’s importance and sacred value to indigenous peoples living on the island of Montréal thousands of years ago.
1861 : Mount Royal, Better Health Care
The Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and the population of Montréal faced pollution, lack of hygiene and epidemics.
The hygienist movement of the time advocated a return to nature as a means to counter the spread of diseases and insalubrity. The sick would be treated outside the city, far from the noise and filth, in hospitals featuring parks and trails where patients could enjoy fresh air. Mount Royal became a land of rest and healing.
In 1861, Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal
left its location in Old Montréal to become the first hospital on the mountain. Shortly after, Royal Victoria Hospital (1893) and Shriners Hospital for Children (1925) also settled on Mount Royal to take advantage of the therapeutic value of nature.
1876 : Inauguration of Mount Royal Park
Montréal had become an important industrial and commercial town with wealthy families, working-class neighbourhoods and a commercial port. In the midst of all this, the mountain. Always majestic, but already fragile.
Many felt that the mountain should be preserved and offered to Montrealers as a place of nature, beauty and well-being in the form of a great park. In 1859, positions in favour of the creation of a park on Mount Royal became crystal-clear when a land owner cut down the trees on his vast Peel Street lot next to the mountain to sell as firewood.
A decision fully supported by the community was then made: there would be a park on the mountain.
As of 1872, the City of Montréal undertook the necessary land purchases for the future park. In 1874, renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was commissioned to design the new park.
On May 24, 1876, the official inauguration of Mount Royal Park drew a large crowd. Despite the lack of landscaping and notable departure from Olmsted’s initial design, one thing was clear—the park was set to become a very popular site.
1904 : Mount Royal and Its Sacred Mission
One of Montréal’s most emblematic sites, Saint Joseph's Oratory has shaped Mount Royal’s architectural and heritage landscape since the early 20th century.
Initially, it was a small chapel on the mountain built in honour of Saint Joseph by Brother André in 1904. As more and more faithful flocked to this place of prayer made famous by the devoted brother with healing powers, the chapel evolved over the decades to include a crypt, basilica and votive chapel and become, in 1967, the Oratory, as it is today.
Long before the Oratory was built, Mount Royal inspired religious orders. In 1657, as new lords of Montréal, the Sulpicians created a mission in a large estate on the mountain’s southern slope to convert Iroquois, Huron and Algonquin populations. In the 18th century, this estate would become the priests’ beloved country residence.
Over the years, several other congregations settled on its slopes, such as the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
1924 : A Cross Lights Up the City
It is to the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste that we owe the cross rising today on Mount Royal. In 1874, the organization expressed the wish to create a cross on the mountain in memory of the one erected by De Maisonneuve in the 17th century. It was only several years later, in 1924, that it succeeded thanks to a major Quebec-wide public fundraising campaign.
Designed by a Sulpician priest (Pierre Dupaigne), the
illuminated cross
rises to a height of 30 m from the summit of Mount Royal.
2005 : New Protection Status for Mount Royal
In 2005, under the Cultural Property Act, the Government of Quebec adopted the decree creating the
Mont Royal Historic and Natural District
, a first in the province of Quebec. By this dual status, the Government of Quebec undertook to protect and promote the harmonious development of this unique collection of assets for its cultural, natural and landscape heritage value.
Today, the territory is recognized as a
heritage site
by the Government of Quebec. A large part of the mountain thus enjoys protective measures guiding the development and embellishment of its spaces and buildings.
Created in 2005, a working table called
Table de concertation du Mont-Royal
(TCMR) brings together key stakeholders concerned with the future of the mountain, including Les amis de la montagne and representatives of several institutional, community, governmental and municipal operations.
Want to find out more about Mount Royal?
Learn about its territory
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Frequently Asked Questions . Sources
Archives Montréal (French only)
Bureau du mont-Royal (French only)
Le site officiel du mont Royal (French only)
Mount Royal Cemetery McGill University Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery
Plan de protection et de mise en valeur du mont Royal (French only)
Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal
Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery
Shearith Israel Cemetery (French only)
Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (French only)
Université de Montréal Let's Be Friends
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