Place Royale

Place Royale, where Montreal began

The Montreal audio-guided tour leads you to Place Royale, where it all began. This place attests to a human presence for more than a thousand years and is the historic cradle of the city, in the heart of Old Montreal.

From the village of Hochelaga to the market square

In 1535, during his second voyage, the explorer Jacques Cartier arrived at the Iroquois village of Hochelaga, about fifty houses surrounded by a palisade, whose population was estimated at around three thousand inhabitants. It was while describing the landscape around the village that he named the mountain Mount Royal. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a market square was established here.

What there is to see

Place Royale, one of the oldest public squares in Montreal, preserves the memory of the first peoples and the beginnings of the colony. Nearby, the Pointe-à-Callière archaeology museum lets you discover remains of the first settlements. It is a place laden with history, where the memory of the Indigenous peoples and the founders is approached with respect.

Practical information

Place Royale is in Old Montreal, near the Pointe-à-Callière museum, in the Ville-Marie borough. It is freely accessible at all hours and on the level. The neighbouring museum keeps its own visiting hours.

Why is Place Royale important?

It attests to a human presence for more than a thousand years and is the historic cradle of Montreal, on the site of the Iroquois village of Hochelaga met by Jacques Cartier in 1535.

Where does the name Mount Royal come from?

It was Jacques Cartier who, in 1535, while describing the landscape around the village of Hochelaga, named the mountain Mount Royal, at the origin of the name Montreal.