Chateau St. Louis

The Château Saint-Louis was historically the official seat of the governors in Québec City, Canada. The fortress-like building stood in Upper Town on the edge of the Cap Diamant cliff, right next to today's Château Frontenac. Its history began in 1648, when a stone residence was built on the site of an older wooden fort to serve as the home of the governors general of New France. Over the centuries, the property was remodeled and fortified several times and restored after heavy war damage, before an additional story was added in the Palladian style in 1808. The building met its final end in 1834, when a devastating fire destroyed it completely. Today, Dufferin Terrace marks the site, which has been classified as a national historic site since 2001. You can explore the area, where extensive archaeological excavations carried out between 2005 and 2007 uncovered numerous artifacts and enriched the historical picture of the place.