*Désolé si le texte est en anglais. Je prendrai le temps de le traduire ultérieurement.
Quebec City's very own Vatican...
So this post isn't so much about one single street as it is a whole municipaly. However, the said municipality has many particularities: it is the smallest in the Province at 0.06 km2, has a population of 456 residents... and is situated in the heart of Quebec’s urban core. It basically is our own version of the Vatican and I must shamefully admit that up until very recently, I had never heard about it!!!
Last weekend, I was walking in a part of town that I usually pass by but never explore and I stumbled upon an impressive and very old looking wall. The wall is very long and it seemed to surround quite an impressive cluster of old buildings.
Well, it turns out that this walled enclave, named Notre-Dame-des-Anges, has managed to become and stay a fully independant municipality for almost 300 years even though it is situated right in the middle Quebec's core. It's cemetery itself has a wonderful history!
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Notre-Dame-des-Anges has managed to escape the recent municipal mergers that swallowed up most suburbs within a 10km radius. It was created to protect its main occupant from taxes, the 300+ year old General Hospital. It survives today as a tax haven run by the mother superior of the Augustines. The highlight of the town is the Notre-Dame-des-Anges Chapel, dating back to 1671. Since the hospital was located far from all the fighting between the French and English, it escaped the cannonballs that ruined most other city churches in the 1700s. This makes it the oldest surviving church in the city.
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http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/...ame-des-anges/
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The community became autonomous in 1699 in keeping with the wishes of its founder, Mgr de Saint-Vallier. In 1721, Mgr de Saint-Vallier also took steps to constitute the hospital—which at the time included a vast farm surrounding the buildings—as a separate parish, Notre-Dame-des-Anges. The Augustinian convent and hospital in the Lower Town have had the good fortune to be spared by fire, making them the oldest religious buildings north of Mexico. However, the original structures have seen many additions over the years. Today, the complex comprises 20 wings, the result of 26 construction projects spread over 337 years.
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http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/...of_Quebec.html
This complex no longer is an hospital but rather, a retirement home for the elderly with specific needs.
1855
http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/...s.html?page=48
1937 - The walls surrounding the town are clearly visible.
http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/...%C3%A9bec.html
1947 - The walled city is situated on the upper right and as you can see, it used to be right next to the shore of the St-Charles river, facing the Queen Victoria Park.
http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2004/0...victoria-1947/
However, during the 50's I believe (and for a reason that I ignore), the riverbed was displaced so that now the municipality is directly linked to the park.
So here are some pictures of the front building as it stands today. Since the Augustine Sisters are rather discreet, it is difficult to have pics of the rest of the buildings.
Hopital Général de Québec par
P Donovan, sur Flickr
http://quebecvudusol.allmyblog.com/2...tines1414.html
This beautiful sculpture is entitled Compassion
http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/...s.html?page=48
http://www.imagesduquebec.com/Photos...dJPe&lb=1&s=XL
http://www.imagesduquebec.com/Photos...483506&k=pRMgn
Hopital Général de Québec par
P Donovan, sur Flickr
Hopital Général de Québec par
P Donovan, sur Flickr
Hopital Général de Québec par
P Donovan, sur Flickr
Monastère de Notre Dame des Anges par
P Donovan, sur Flickr
Monastère de Notre Dame des Anges par
P Donovan, sur Flickr
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Cemeteries
There are three historic cemeteries on the hospital grounds. One of them was created in 1728 for the poor. It officially became the Hôpital-Général de Québec Cemetery in 2001 and is the only Seven Years’ War cemetery in the world. It contains the remains of 1,058 French, English, Canadian, and aboriginal soldiers who died in the war between 1753 and 1760 and on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. Many of the soldiers were treated by the nuns, and their names recorded in the general hospital archives. In 2001 the remains of General Montcalm—till then kept by the Ursulines of Quebec City—were moved to a mausoleum bearing his name, and also home to 17 of his peers. The cemetery contains the largest known concentration of French officers decorated as Chevaliers de Saint-Louis, a high distinction under France’s Ancien Regime.
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http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/...of_Quebec.html
Here is the Seven Years' War memorial situated in the cemetery, near Montcalm's mausoleum.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier...3%A9morial.jpg
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Windmill
Close to the monastery on what is today Boulevard Langelier, Mgr de Saint-Vallier had a wooden windmill built for the Augustinians in 1710. It was replaced in 1731 by a stone windmill, which still stands to this day. The hospital site was classified in 1977.
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http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/...of_Quebec.html
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4...de_Qu%C3%A9bec
Finally, on the opposite side of the street (rue des Commissaires) stands another beautiful building which used to be the Polytechnic School of Quebec:
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scrip...imageID=243762