Fodor's Expert Review Chapelle des Ursulines
Upper Town
Religious Building/Site/Shrine
Free
Founded in 1639, the Couvent des Ursulines is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. Its chapel is where French general Louis-Joseph Montcalm was buried after he died in the 1759 battle that decided the fate of New France. It also houses the finest examples of wood-carving anywhere in Québec, gilded by the nuns themselves. In 2001, Montcalm's remains were transferred to rest with those of his soldiers at the Hôpital Général de Québec's cemetery, at 260 boulevard Langelier. The exterior of the Ursuline Chapel was rebuilt in 1902, but the interior contains the original chapel, which took sculptor Pierre-Noël Levasseur from 1726 to 1736 to complete. The Ursulines is still an active elementary school today.
