Fort de l'île Sainte-Hélène
Red-stone arsenal on a river island, later a military prison, hospital, and wartime internment camp.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Fort de l'île Sainte-Hélène in Montreal starts with Samuel de Champlain naming the island in 1611 for his wife, and the guide who drowned chasing herons in its rapids. It follows the reddish stone fort British engineers built here in the 1820s, an arsenal and powder house that survived an 1848 fire, and the island's later turns as a cholera hospital and a wartime internment camp. Listen for the quarried red rock underfoot as you walk between its walls.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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