Château Ramezay

The Château Ramezay is a historic building in Montreal. It is located in the Old Town (Vieux -Montreal ) on Rue Notre -Dame. The building was built in 1705 as governor residence and one of the oldest remaining in the city. Today it serves as ethnological museum and portrait gallery. The Château Ramezay is a listed building and is since 1949 a National Historic Site.

History

1705 was Claude de Ramezay, the then Governor of Montreal, had the building constructed as a personal residence. His descendants sold it in 1745 to the French West India Company. 1754 established a fire at great losses, after which the building was constructed from 1755 to 1757 using the original foundations again and expanded. After the capture of Montreal by the British West India Company in 1764, was forced to sell the building. New owner of Château Ramezay was the dealer William Grant, who rented it from 1773 to the government. Henceforth, the Governor-General lived there when staying in the city, with the exception of the invasion of Canada 1775/76 by ​​the Continental Army, as here lodged the American commanders.

The last governor took off in 1844 and 1849, the Château Ramezay initially served as a courthouse from 1856 to 1879 as an elementary school. At times, even the Ministry of Education offices were housed here. The Université Laval opened a branch office in Montreal and used the building from 1880 for its medical school, in 1883 and for the law school. Already in 1889 the University moved out again and the next four years was here again a court accommodated. 1895 the building passed into the possession of the city of Montreal. Since it is used by the Société d' archéologie et de numismatique de Montréal ( numismatic and archaeological society ) that it operates as a museum.

Building

The opposite the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) located Château Ramezay presents itself as a typical town house in the era of New France. The light gray limestone walls are partly composed of re-used field stones of the original building, but mainly of rubble from nearby quarries. The building includes a fully vaulted basement, a ground floor and an attic floor. It spans an encompassed by pediments gable roof. The left side of the façade is equipped with a turret.

On the back of the Château de Ramezay a garden extends in the French style.

Museum

The collection of the museum consists mainly of donations from residents of Montreal and has around 30,000 objects. These include:

• Drawings, prints, paintings and etchings of historical importance as well as portraits of influential personalities
• Ethnological collection with utilitarian objects and works of art of the aborigines
• Collection of objects of the everyday life of the French-Canadian population in the 18th and 19th century
• Coin collections
• Collections of photographs
• Library with 13,000 Titles