Bonsecours Market

This guide to Bonsecours Market in Montreal turns on the night of April 25, 1849, when a mob of Tory rioters burned the colony's parliament building a few streets from here after lawmakers voted to compensate French Canadians for property lost in earlier rebellions. You'll hear how the government, with nowhere else to sit, moved straight into this two-year-old market under its new silver dome, ringed by soldiers and facing two cannons in the street outside. Stand under that same dome, now filled with shops and diners, and picture the room mid-session.