“Nestled among office buildings in Montréal’s downtown core, lies this cathedral, the third largest church in Québec. Built at the end of the 19th century in the heart of what was then the city's Anglo-Protestant sector, this ornate Renaissance cathedral is replica of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, a departure from the Gothic Revival style so popular at the time. Covering nearly 4,700 square meters, the cathedral is built in the shape of a Latin cross. In 1919, Pope Benedict XV conferred the title of Minor Basilica on Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur Cathedral, renamed to Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral in 1955.” —mtl.org

Greysuitcase Montréal Series: Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

I ended up inside Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral purely by chance. This place wasn’t on our list of places to visit when me and my friends went to Montréal, but a couple having their engagement shoot in front of the building did make us stop to see the towering architecture they were using as their backdrop. My friend got curious and went inside the building to look around and came out a couple of minutes later saying that it’s actually a big cathedral inside.

And so I also got curious and went in to check the place out. The view that greeted me the moment I stepped into the main hall was nothing short of amazing. The inside of the cathedral is enormous (at least bigger than what I expected it to be) and the architecture is pretty remarkable. There’s a familiarity that I couldn’t quite put my finger on but after reading that this cathedral is a replica of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, it kind of make sense. Maybe that’s what I was reminded of when seeing this place.

There were other tourists like me who were admiring the architecture of the cathedral and there were others who came to sit on the pews or light a candle and pray. Everybody was honoring the quiet stillness inside the cathedral which I found comforting.

Although my visit to the Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral was unplanned, I’m glad that I got to see this place because this cathedral was one of the more impressive architecture I saw during my Montréal trip.