Rue du Petit-Champlain

Interesting facts

Leading down to the street, the Breakneck Stairs date from 1635 and are considered the oldest stairway in Quebec City; they have 59 steps.

The stairs were once known as Champlain Stairs or Beggars' Stairs, and gained the name Breakneck in the mid-nineteenth century because of their steepness.

In 1889 the architect Charles Baillairgé rebuilt the stairs, turning a single flight into four.

The lane began in the seventeenth century as a footpath leading to a spring known as the Champlain fountain.

In 1688 it was named Rue de Meulles after Jacques de Meulles, intendant of New France, and only later took Champlain's name.

Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine settled here in the nineteenth century and called it Little Champlain Street.

A rockfall in 1889 cut the street off from the rest of Rue Champlain, leaving it as the short separate lane it is today.

In 2014 a national competition run by the Canadian Urban Institute named it Canada's most remarkable street.

Why it is worth it

Rue du Petit-Champlain is a narrow street squeezed between the cliff of Cap Diamant and the lower town of Quebec City. It is only about a quarter of a kilometre long, running from Rue Sous-le-Fort to Boulevard Champlain, but it is the spine of the Petit Champlain quarter, which claims to be the oldest commercial district in North America. The name honours Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec in 1608 at the foot of this very cliff.

The street's buildings stand with their backs against the rock, so that from the west side the cliff rises almost directly behind the rooftops, while the high Château Frontenac looks down from above. Today they house small boutiques, shops and cafés, and in winter, under snow, the lane looks like a picture from another century. The classic view is from the top of the Breakneck Stairs at its northern end, looking down along the street; old photographs show that around 1890 it was still a wooden boardwalk.

Next to the stairs is the lower station of the Funiculaire du Vieux-Québec, opened in 1879, which climbs Cap Diamant at an angle of 45 degrees over 64 metres to Dufferin Terrace beside the Château. Halfway along the street a small park is dedicated to the singer Félix Leclerc, and on the gable of number 102 a trompe-l'œil fresco of about 100 square metres tells the story of the district — the bombardment of 1759, the rockfalls and the fires that have repeatedly struck this narrow strip between cliff and river.

Getting there

The street is in the lower town of Old Quebec, less than a kilometre from the centre of Quebec City; from the upper town it is reached by the Breakneck Stairs or the funicular from Dufferin Terrace. Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB) is about 15 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

Rue du Petit-Champlain is a street in the Canadian city of Quebec City, Quebec. It is located in the Petit Champlain commercial district, at the foot of Cap Diamant, and contains many boutique shops. Quartier du Petit Champlain is claimed to be the oldest commercial district in North America. It is named for Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec City in 1608.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Rue du Petit-Champlain

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia