The St. Louis Gate
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St. Louis Gate (or "La porte Saint-Louis" in French) represented on our SuperGraphic, as it appears today, dates from 1878 and was designed by Lord Dufferin, the Governor General of Canada from 1872 to 1878. But this is the "modern version" of St. Louis Gate, compared to how it looked at the time of its origin, as early as 1693. Like all the other sections of Old Québec's Fortified Wall, St. Louis Gate had a "life" of its own. It was constructed, renovated, modified, restored, demolished and rebuilt many times throughout its history:
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- The structure of 1693 was built by the French under Governor Frontenac;
- In 1720, a new French chief engineer, Chaussegros de Léry, had it restored;
- It was demolished by the British in 1791, because of its poor condition, and rebuilt;
- That new structure itself lasted until 1823, when it was replaced by the British;
- It was eventually removed altogether in 1871, because it had become obsolete;
- In 1878, for embellishment, it was rebuilt as the St. Louis Gate still existing today.