In 1654 the founder of Montréal, de Maisonneuve, granted 112 arpents to his co-founder Jeanne Mance that was called the "Fief of Nazareth." The word "fief" is a feudal term and it can be interpreted as a tract of land granted by the Seigneur to one of his subjects in exchange for services the subject would render to the Seigneur.
To get an idea of where this suburb was located you may refer to the following site
The "Fauberg" was situated west of the fortified village of Ville-Marie as Montreal was called at the time and Jean Mance and her nuns called it "Grange des pauvres" or the English translation, "the pauper barn."
Apparently the property had been converted by Jeanne Mance and her nuns to a farm wherein food was sold and the proceeds were used to support the first hospital in Montreal known as Hotel Dieu.
It was during this era that a fire destroyed over 100 wooden houses inside the walls of the city and a law was enacted which forbade the building of any further wooden structures within the city's walls. Consequently, a great number of people were forced to build outside of the fortified city and as a result Montreal's first suburb sprung up within the boundaries of this triangular plot of land.
In 1698 we see the construction of a chapel by a gentleman by the name of Pierre Leber This area later became known as "Nazareth Fief" as well as "Griffintown."
If you want to take a walk around the first suburb of Montreal you can reach it by a variety of routes. From the North you can reach it from McGill, University or Peel. From the South you can take the Victoria Bridge (you may want to refer to my previous article concerning the Victoria Bridge), proceed to Bridge Street and onto rue de la Commune. From the East you can take Wellington Street, the Bonaventure Autoroute and get off at the Wellington exit. If you wish to take the metro go to Station Square Victoria and if you have a moment exit through the Saint-Antoine door where you can view the Parisian metro art work which was designed by Hector Guimard and was gifted by the City of Paris to Montreal on the occasion of the opening of the Montreal Metro in 1966.
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