Pointe-à-Callière
Montreal
Pointe-à-Callière is Montreal's museum of archaeology and history. In front of it opens Place Royale, the city's first market square.
Before the city
From about the year 1000 until the late 1500s, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians lived on the island. This spot on the shore was a place for fishing and meeting. In 1611 the explorer Samuel de Champlain gave the nearby point the name place Royale.
The first market
From 1676 the square was the city's market, on the site of the fur fair. Later the stalls were set out in two rows shaped like a U. In the early 1800s the market moved to a square farther east. A cut-stone building was then built in the middle, in the late 1830s.
The museum on the dig
The museum grew out of archaeological discoveries made in the 1980s. Its main building stands on the foundations of an insurance company from the 1800s. Underground there are remains of walls, an underground channel from 1832 and traces of the first village.
To look at from the square
At the edge of Place Royale there are four copper plaques. One is engraved with Indigenous drawings taken from the Great Peace treaty of 1701.
