Ville-Marie Tourism Attractions

More than 375 years ago, in 1642, Montréal was founded under the name Ville-Marie Tourism Attrractions in honour of the Virgin Mary. Their leader were a pious ex-soldier named Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, just thirty years old, and the equally devout Jeanne Mance, a nurse five years his senior.

Ville-Marie Borough - Jacques-Cartier Bridge

Their mission was to establish a Catholic missionary community on Île de Montréal and to call it Ville-Marie, after the Virgin Mary. A permanent state of war between the Iroquois and the colonists marks the early decades of the colony.

Fur trade soon created conflicts between traders, explorers and Indigenous people.

The long-lasting peace was only established in 1701 with the conclusion of a major treaty, La Grande Paix, between the French, the Iroquois and more than 30 other Indigenous groups.