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| 1736 Historic District of Old Québec - Château Frontenac in nowadays |
Posted on 12.07.2015, 23.05.2016
Founded in 1608 by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America, being also the only North American city to have preserved its ramparts, together with the numerous bastions, gates and defensive works which still surround Old Quebec. The Upper Town, built on the cliff, has remained the religious and administrative centre, with its churches, convents and other monuments like the Dauphine Redoubt, La Citadelle and Château Frontenac. Together with the Lower Town, developed around the Place Royale and the harbour, it forms an urban ensemble, the Historic District of Old Québec, which is one of the best examples of a fortified colonial city.
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| 2573 Historic District of Old Québec - Château Frontenac in 1930's |
The narrowing of the Saint Lawrence River proximate to the city's promontory, Cap-aux-Diamants (Cape Diamond), and Lévis, on the opposite bank, provided the name given to the city, Kébec, an Algonquin word meaning "where the river narrows". It was the capital of New France and, after 1760, of the new British colony. The construction of a citadel at the far south-east end of Cap-aux-Diamants by the engineer Elias Durnford from 1819 to 1831 and the expansion of the system of fortifications were in keeping with the original spatial organization of the city and gave Québec its current topographical features.
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