Today a fairly unassuming public square for working Montrealers, visiting tourists and horse-drawn carriages to rub shoulders, Place D’Armes has had an important role in Montreal's history.

For one it's said that in 1644 city founder Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, took on and defeated an Iroquois chief here, providing one reason for the presence of his statue at the centre of the square. It was also here that the French surrendered their arms to the British in 1760 - hence the square's name.

The Sulpicians

Later in the 17th century the Messieurs de St-Sulpice, an order of Paris-trained Sulpician priests came to run Montreal as a religious colony and built their Seminary on the square. Lovers of trivia will enjoy that it sports North America's oldest public clock (1701), but most people's attention is drawn the vast Notre Dame Basilica which the priests built next door.