The Notre-Dame Basilica of Old Montreal

I enjoy traveling, and although I don't get to do it very often, I really want this blog to be an opportunity for me to talk about what little travel I do get to do. So, I'm going to talk about the little Montreal trip that I took with my sister and friend, or more specifically, the Notre-Dame Basilica that we got to see while in Old Montreal.

In three days, it can be difficult to see all the sights of Old Montreal; there are just so many. We were lucky to get a chance to see the Notre-Dame Basilica, and it was definitely worth the $5 entrance fee and was probably my favourite historic site we visited during the whole trip.

We had wandered past it numerous times during the course of our trip, and its beauty is stunning, even from the outside. Not only that, but it was just one of the buildings in Old Montreal that happened to be lit up, making Old Montreal a little more scenic for the Christmas season.

It was on our last day in Montreal that we finally made time to see the inside of the Notre-Dame Basilica. Upon arrival, there weren't any tours being provided, so we just had a look around the Basilica and the little "wedding chapel" in  the back that's called Chapel of Notre-Dame du Sacre-Coeur. Later, when we did get an English-language tour, we learned that a later addition to the Basilica was the stained glass windows depicting the history of Montreal, including Montreal's religious history, the arrival of Jacques Cartier to Montreal on his second voyage, and Montreal's relationship with the native peoples. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died at the Basilica, so the pictures were taken with my cell phone and are of a lower quality than I would like due to lighting, but you can definitely get the idea from the pictures below at just how beautiful the stained glass is.

During the tour we learned that an Irish protestant from New York, James O'Donnell, was the architect of the Notre-Dame Basilica. He had already been an architect for churches like it, and it was cheaper to get someone from New York than it was to get someone from Europe, so he was the natural choice, despite not being Catholic. When he died, however, he converted to Catholicism so he could be buried under his church.

The Notre-Dame Basilica was actually inspired by the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, not the Notre Dame in Paris. From what I learned, Sainte Chapelle was actually commissioned by King Louis IX of France, and James O'Donnell used Fleur de Lys as a representation of the French monarchy in the Basilica, and also copied the Sainte Chapelle by including a blue and gold ceiling. 

The Notre-Dame de Sacre Coeuer was built more recently, and is apparently commonly used for weddings, which is why it's called the wedding chapel. It's quite different from the Notre-Dame Basilica, because it's smaller and more modern in terms of appearance. There is, however, two pieces of stained glass in the chapel that were recovered after a fire, and are among some of the oldest pieces in the chapel.

There's a lot more history to this building, I'm sure, but to be frank, I don't remember everything that was mentioned. I highly recommend you go yourself and to learn more about this beautiful building, if you ever happen to be in Montreal.