Place Jacques-Cartier and Montréal City Hall
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Transcript
Place Jacques-Cartier became a public market and civic space after the old Château de Vaudreuil burned. At its upper end stands Montréal City Hall, completed in the nineteenth century.
The building is famous for a twentieth-century moment. In 1967, French president Charles de Gaulle addressed a crowd from its balcony and ended with “Vive le Québec libre!” The declaration electrified Québec nationalism and angered Canada's federal government.
That episode shows how architecture can become political theatre.
The square has performed many roles—market, ceremonial route, tourist promenade. Its current restaurant terraces can obscure the fact that public squares are machines for assembling crowds.
In Montréal, assembled crowds have repeatedly changed the meaning of the city.