Rue Saint-Jean
Storefront-and-home artisan buildings lining a working-class street born just outside the old fortifications.
This guide to Rue Saint-Jean in Quebec City traces the street artisans built for themselves around 1650, when roofers, tanners and carters fled Old Quebec's guild inspectors and settled just outside the Saint-Jean gate to work free of the rules. It follows the packed, wooden storefront-and-home buildings that grew up there, and the catastrophic fire of June 28, 1845, that swept through so fast its smoke was reportedly seen in Trois-Rivieres, leaving roughly ten thousand people homeless in a single night. Look up at the buildings' rooflines as you walk, still doing the same double duty they always have.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.