Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
Notre-Dame Basilica
Interesting facts
- When it was completed the basilica was the largest church in North America, a title it held for more than fifty years.
- Its architect James O'Donnell, an Irish-American Anglican from New York, converted to Catholicism on his deathbed and is the only person buried in the crypt.
- O'Donnell's brief was a church big enough to hold a congregation of up to 10,000 people.
- The two towers were finished in 1841 and 1843 by John Ostell, who completed them after O'Donnell's death following the original plans.
- The present interior exists partly because the first sanctuary canopy created a glare that blinded worshippers, prompting a redesign inspired by the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.
- The great bourdon Jean-Baptiste rings only on special occasions such as funerals, major church feasts and Christmas Eve.
- Three statues by the French sculptor Henri Bouriché stand on the facade: Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.
- Before the present church, the Sulpicians' parish church of 1672 stood on the site and briefly served as the first cathedral of the Diocese of Montreal in 1821–1822.
- Both the bourdon and the ten-bell carillon were cast at John Dod Ward's Eagle Foundry, the carillon in 1842.
Why it is worth it
From Place d'Armes the Notre-Dame Basilica looks sober enough: a grey stone Gothic Revival front between two square towers. Nothing in that facade prepares you for the interior, which is one of the most saturated church spaces in North America — a deep blue vault scattered with gold stars, and below it a forest of carved and gilded wood in blues, azures, reds, purples, silver and gold, all converging on a towering polychrome altarpiece.
The church was built between 1824 and 1829 to designs by the architect James O'Donnell, and the facade was only finished in 1865. O'Donnell gave the city the exterior, but the interior that makes the building famous is the work of Victor Bourgeau, who reworked it later in the century. Look at the stained-glass windows along the nave: unusually, they do not tell Bible stories but scenes from the religious history of Montreal itself. In the gallery stands the great Casavant Frères organ of 1891, with four keyboards, 99 stops and some 7,000 pipes. The west tower holds the bourdon Jean-Baptiste, cast in 1848 and weighing almost 11 tonnes, and the east tower a carillon of ten bells.
Behind the main altar lies a second, quieter world: the Sacred Heart Chapel, completed in 1888, gutted by an arsonist in 1978 and rebuilt around a monumental bronze altarpiece by Charles Daudelin — a rare case of a contemporary work holding its own beside so much nineteenth-century gold. The church became a minor basilica in 1982 and a National Historic Site of Canada in 1989. It has been the stage for great civic moments, among them the state funerals of Maurice Richard and Pierre Trudeau in 2000 and of Brian Mulroney in 2024, and Céline Dion's wedding in 1994. In the evenings the nave becomes the setting for AURA, a light and music show by the Montreal studio Moment Factory.
Getting there
The basilica is at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, facing Place d'Armes in the heart of Old Montreal, about 1.3 km from the Ville-Marie centre. The nearest metro is Place-d'Armes on the Orange Line, a short walk away. The closest airfield in a straight line is the small Montréal Saint-Hubert airport (YHU), about 11 km away across the river, but almost all travellers arrive through Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL), about 20 km from Old Montreal by bus or taxi.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Habitat 67 1.1 km · monument
- Montreal Biosphère 2.2 km · museum
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Basilica of Our Lady of Montreal, also known as Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, is a minor basilica of the Catholic Church in the historic Old Montreal district of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It is located at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, on the corner of Saint Sulpice Street. It is situated next to the Saint-Sulpice Seminary and faces the Place d'Armes square.
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