Old Quebec – the walled city

Part of Old Quebec, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), is high on a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence River. It is the only walled city in North America, north of Mexico.

Old Quebec had walls to protect it from invaders. Here is a portion of the wall.

There were also gates to get into the city. There are four main city gates built into the ramparts that provide access to Old Quebec’s Upper Town including Kent Gate, Prescott Gate, Saint-Jean Gate, and Saint-Louis Gate. Here is a picture of the St. Jean gate. Of course this gate is on Rue St. Jean.

There weren’t just walls around Old Quebec, there were plenty of cannons too. They are mainly pointed towards the St. Lawrence River, since this is where an invader was mostly like to be coming from.

Most of the cannons were British made, but there are a few Russian cannons here as well. These cannons were captured by the British during the Crimean War (1853-1856) and brought here to Quebec. How does one know if a cannon is British or Russian? Well, by the insignia on the top. This is a fun, little known fact that we learned on our walking tour of Old Quebec.

The Citadelle of Quebec, also known as La Citadelle, is an active military installation and the secondary official residence of both the Canadian monarch and the governor general of Canada.  It is located atop Cap Diamant, adjoining the Plains of Abraham in Old Quebec. The citadel contains the oldest military building in Canada and forms part of the fortifications of Quebec City, which is one of only two cities in North America still surrounded by fortifications, the other being Campeche, Mexico.

No surprise, the Citadel is on a hill. All the better for seeing if an enemy is approaching.

Mr. Ken and I had the pleasure of touring La Citadelle. A guided tour is the only way you can see this since it is an active military base. I especially loved seeing the guards of La Citadelle. They are dressed very similarly to our beloved Sir Oliver, with bright red jackets and bearskin hats! The guards are part of the 22nd Regiment. They are known as the “Van Doos,” which is an anglicized version of the french word for 22, vingt-deux. As you can imagine, this outfit can be quite warm in the summer months. Here is a guard getting some much needed water from another soldier. And another picture of the colorful uniform.

And for comparison, here is our dear Sir Oliver.

La Citadelle has a mascot, Batisse the goat! Batisse is a Persian goat descended from the Queen’s private stock of goats.

I normally am not interested in military history, but in the case of Old Quebec, I was fascinated since the conflicts between the French and the English are such an integral part of Old Quebec’s history and identity.

What sort of history do you like?