Place Royale

The Place Royale is the historical heart of the city of Quebec. Located in the historic district of Old Quebec, which was classified World Heritage in 1985 by UNESCO, Place-Royale, whose SODEC owns 26 buildings, is bounded by the Saint-Pierre street, the coast of Mountain and Petit-Champlain Street. It includes several historical, tourist and cultural buildings. Nowadays, the square is bounded by the Rue des Pains Bénits, Notre-Dame Street and Rue de la Place. The Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, the oldest still existing stone church in North America, closed the Place Royale in the south. In the center is the bust of Louis XIV, king during the rise of the colony of New France. Nicknamed 'the cradle of French civilization in America', Place Royale extends to the site where Samuel de Champlain started the construction of a fortified post in 1608, the first habitation of Quebec City thus creating the oldest French settlement permanent in America 1, 2. The buildings that are then built, like the stores of the Roy, serve in particular to the fur trade with the Amerindians, who occupied the places occasionally to fish and exchange their products.