Following the British conquest of New France, a remarkable series of transformations took place in the small, Catholic trading town of Montreal. Given the diversity of residents forced to live side by side, the new church buildings that were to rise became strategic public spaces, meeting places as well as power bases.

By addressing the social, religious and architectural issues surrounding these structures, it will become apparent that Montreal was at once a shining jewel in England’s imperial crown, a chief outpost of Catholicism in the New World, as well as the British North American headquarters for more than a dozen independent congregations.

Little surprise that by the time Mark Twain toured Canada’s first metropolis in the 1880s, he found that one could not throw a brick in the place without breaking a church window.