Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal

A Gothic Revival basilica renowned for its dazzling deep-blue and gold interior.

Inside, the vaulted ceiling is deep blue with golden stars, and the sanctuary shines with reds, purples, silver and gold. Pope John Paul II gave the church the status of minor basilica in 1982, and it became a National Historic Site of Canada in 1989. About 11 million people visit every year, making it one of the most visited monuments in North America.

From a small parish to a giant church

French Catholic priests called Sulpicians arrived in Montreal in 1657, and a parish church was built on this site in 1672. By 1824 the congregation had outgrown it, so O'Donnell, an Irish-American architect from New York, was asked to design a church for up to 10,000 people. When it was finished it was the largest church in North America, and it kept that title for more than fifty years. O'Donnell is the only person buried in its crypt.

Blue and gold inside

The inside took longer than the outside. Victor Bourgeau worked on it from 1872 to 1879, taking inspiration from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, with gold-leaf patterns and brightly painted columns. Hundreds of wooden carvings fill the sanctuary. Unusually for a church, the stained-glass windows show scenes from Montreal's religious history, not Bible stories.

Organ, bell and weddings

The Casavant organ, from 1891, has four keyboards and about 7,000 pipes. The big bell in the west tower is called Jean-Baptiste and weighs 10,900 kilograms; it rings only on special days such as Christmas Eve. The east tower holds a ten-bell carillon.

The singer Céline Dion married here in 1994. Since 2020 builders have been repairing weathered stonework in a project expected to take more than a decade.

On the globe

The model shows the twin-towered Gothic Revival basilica with its blue and gold interior.