Location | 903, avenue de Lorimier Montreal, Quebec H2K 3V9 |
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Coordinates | 45°31′25″N73°32′47″W / 45.5236°N 73.5465°W |
Status | Closed |
Security class | historic site (1978) |
Capacity | over 276 |
Opened | 1835 |
Closed | 1912 |
Managed by | Société des alcools du Québec |
Governor | Charles-Amédée Vallée - from 1895 to 1912 |
Website | www |
The Pied-du-Courant Prison (French : Prison du Pied-du-Courant) is a prison museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada near the Saint Lawrence River and the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.
The original plan for a prison in Montreal was designed by Quebec architect George Blaiklock in 1825 to replace the prison at Champ de Mars (built in the first decade of the 19th Century), [1] but John Wells ultimately designed the building (after a prison in Philadelphia, likely the Eastern State Penitentiary built in 1829) that was finally opened a decade later. [2] The building was built to house over 276 prisoners, but held over 1500 prisoners from the 1837-1838 rebellion. [3] The prison operated from 1836 to 1912 as a city prison in Montreal and housed prisoners and hangings following the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1838.
The prison was replaced by Bordeaux Prison and was vacant from 1912 to 1921. In 1921 it was acquired by and became the headquarters of the Société des alcools du Québec, the provincial-owned liquor board in Quebec.
The main prison building was altered with the Gable roof on the front of centre block removed, a fourth floor added (replacing roofing) and new wing added to the rear (by SAQ). The west wall in the front was demolished leaving the gate and east wall intact.
It saw the incarceration and execution by hanging of several Patriotes who had fought the Lower Canada Rebellion. [3] Because of this, it also houses a museum on the history of the Patriotes and a gathering is usually held there on National Patriote Day. Upon the front of its site is found the Monument aux Patriotes by sculptor Alfred Laliberté. The whole of Pierre Falardeau's film February 15, 1839 happens at the Prison.
In 2017, the building was bought by the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and Télé-Québec. [4]
The monument is located in the Place of the Patriots, which is in front of the Société des alcools du Québec offices and the site of the old Pied-du-Courant Prison.
The work of Alfred Laliberté, the Monument aux Patriotes was unveiled on June 24, 1926. On each its three faces a carved bronze medallion represents patriots Chevalier de Lorimier, Louis-Joseph Papineau, and Wolfred Nelson.
The Lower Canada Rebellion, commonly referred to as the Patriots' Rebellion in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada. Together with the simultaneous rebellion in the neighbouring colony of Upper Canada, it formed the Rebellions of 1837–38.
This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events in British North America relating to what is the present day province of Quebec, Canada between the time of the Constitutional Act of 1791 and the Act of Union 1840.
Ludger Duvernay, born in Verchères, Quebec, was a printer by profession and published a number of newspapers including the Gazette des Trois-Rivières, the first newspaper in Lower Canada outside of Quebec City and Montreal, and also La Minerve, which supported the Parti patriote and Louis-Joseph Papineau in the years leading up to the Lower Canada Rebellion.
Denis-Benjamin Viger was a 19th-century politician, lawyer, and newspaper publisher in Lower Canada, who served as joint premier of the Province of Canada for over two years. A leader in the Patriote movement, he was a strong French-Canadian nationalist, but a social conservative in terms of the seigneurial system and the position of the Catholic church in Lower Canada.
The Battle of Beauharnois was fought on November 10, 1838, between Lower Canada loyalists and Patriote rebels, after 500 armed men had converged on Beauharnois, on November 3–4, overtaking the seigneurial manor.
Louis-Michel Viger was a lawyer, banker, businessman, seigneur and political figure in Lower Canada, and then in Canada East in the Province of Canada.
The patriotes movement was a political movement that existed in Lower Canada from the turn of the 19th century to the Patriote Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 and the subsequent Act of Union of 1840. The partisan embodiment of the movement was the Parti patriote, which held many seats in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.
Charles Hindelang was a French-born military man who fought for the independence of Lower Canada. For these actions, he was hanged by the British authorities. Born in Paris, he also had a Swiss heritage and was a Calvinist.
The Long Winter is a 1999 Quebec historical drama film. Directed by Michel Brault, it is a partly fictionalized account of the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 which sought to make Lower Canada, now Quebec, a republic independent from the British Empire.
February 15, 1839 is a 2001 Quebec historical drama film. Directed by Pierre Falardeau, it is about the incarceration at the Pied-du-Courant Prison and the execution by hanging there of Patriote participants of the Lower Canada Rebellion. Those rebels sought to make Lower Canada, now Quebec, a republic independent from the British Empire.
François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier, also known under shorter names such as François-Marie-Thomas de Lorimier, Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier or Chevalier de Lorimier, was a notary who fought as a Patriote and Frère chasseur for the independence of Lower Canada in the Lower Canada Rebellion. For these actions, he was incarcerated at the Montreal Pied-du-Courant Prison and was hanged at the site by the British authorities.
The Frères chasseurs were a paramilitary organization that fought in the Patriote Rebellion on the Patriote side, seeking to make Lower Canada, now Quebec, an independent and democratic republic.
The Iroquois community of Kahnawake played a unique role in the Lower Canada Rebellions, part of the greater Rebellions of 1837.
The Centre-Sud is a neighbourhood located in the easternmost edge of the Ville-Marie borough of the city of Montreal.
The following is an incomplete bibliography of the 1837-1838 insurrections in Lower Canada in the English and French languages, by publication date and document type.
The timeline of Montreal history is a chronology of significant events in the history of Montreal, Canada's second-most populated city, with about 3.5 million residents in 2018, and the fourth-largest French-speaking city in the world.
Alfred Laliberté was a French-Canadian sculptor and painter based in Montreal. His output includes more than 900 sculptures in bronze, marble, wood, and plaster. Many of his sculptures depict national figures and events in Canada and France such as Louis Hébert, François-Xavier-Antoine Labelle, Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, and the Lower Canada Rebellion. Although he produced hundreds of paintings as well, he is chiefly remembered for his work as a sculptor.
De Lorimier Avenue is a major north–south avenue located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.