NOTRE-DAME DE MONTREAL BASILICA
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal (in English, Notre-Dame Basilica) is a basilica in the historic district of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. Specifically, it is located at 116, rue Notre-Dame ouest, facing Place d'Armes, at the corner of rue Saint-Sulpice in Old Montreal (Place-d'Armes metro station).
The church is among the most dramatic in the world; its interior is grand and colourful, its ceiling is coloured deep blue and decorated with golden stars, and the rest of the sanctuary is a polychrome of blues, azures, reds, purples, silver, and gold.
It is filled with hundreds of intricate wooden carvings and several religious statues. Unusual for a church, the stained-glass windows along the walls of the sanctuary are not biblical, but depict scenes from the religious history of Montreal. It also has a Canadian-built Casavant Freres pipe organ.
 HISTORY OF NOTRE-DAME DE MONTREAL
In 1657, the Roman Catholic Sulpician Order arrived in Ville-Marie, now known as Montreal; six years later the seigneury of the island was vested in them. They ruled until 1840. The parish they founded was dedicated to the Holy Name of Mary, and the parish church of Notre-Dame was built on the site in 1672.
By 1824 the congregation had completely outgrown the church, and James O'Donnell, an Irish-American Protestant from New York, was commisioned to design the new building. O'Donnel was a proponent of the Gothic Revival architectural movement, and designed the church as such.
It is said that the experience of designing Notre-Dame affected O'Donnel so profoundly that he converted to Catholicism just prior to his 1930 death. He is the only person to be buried in the church's crypt.
The sanctuary was completed also in 1930, and the first tower was completed in 1843. When the structure was finished it was the largest church in North America.
The interior took much longer, and Victor Bourgeau, who also worked on Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral also in Montreal, worked on it from 1872 to 1879. Stonemason John Redpath was a major participant in the construction of the Basilica.
Because of the splendour and scale of the church, a more intimate chapel (Chapelle du Sacre-Coeur) was built behind it along with some offices and a sacristy. It was completed in 1888.
A major arson fire destroyed the Sacre-Coeur Chapel on December 7, 1978. It was rebuilt with the first two levels being reproduced from old drawings and photographs, with modern vaulting and reredos and an immense bronze altarpiece by Quebec sculptor Charles Daudelin.
Notre-Dame Church was raised to the status of basilica by Pope John Paul II during a visit to the city on April 21, 1982.
The basilica offers musical programming of choral and organ performances. It is a tradition among many Montrealers to attend the annual performance of Handel's Messiah every December at Christmas.
Perhaps the most famous moment at the basilica took place in 2000 - Justin Trudeau giving his eulogy during the state funeral of Pierre Trudeau, his father, Canada's 15th prime minister. It was also the setting of Celine Dion's 1994 wedding to Rene Angelil.
Retrieved from Wikipedia.org, the Free Encyclopedia
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