History and Description
Created on property purchased from Dr. Pierre Beaubien, the new cemetery was a response to growing demand at a time when the old Saint-Antoine Cemetery (near the present Dominion Square) had become too small to serve Montreal’s rapidly increasing population. On May 29, 1855, Mrs. Jane Gilroy, wife of Thomas McCready, then a Montréal municipal councilor, was the first person to be buried in the new cemetery.
Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is the largest cemetery in Canada with more than 55 kilometres of lanes and one million people interred. The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery site has over 65,000 monuments and 71 family vaults.
The cemetery was originally open only to Roman Catholics; it is now open to any Christian, though it continues to be a Catholic institution and serve a primarily Catholic community. Primarily the interment grounds for French Canadians, as they have almost exclusively been members of the Roman Catholic faith.The cemetery shares the mountain with the predominantly English-speaking and originally Protestant adjacent burial ground, the Mount Royal Cemetery. These two abutting cemeteries on the slopes of Mount Royal with almost 1.5 million burials make the area a truly city of the dead. The only opening in the fence between the two large cemeteries is where two adjoining military sections are. Shortly after World War I, to emphasize the comradeship and uniformity of sacrifice of Protestant and Catholic soldiers, the Imperial War Graves Commission insisted on an open passage between the two plots and the Cross of Sacrifice was erected.
Its "La Pietà Mausoleum" contains a life-sized marble reproduction of Michelangelo's Pietà sculpture located in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1999 and plaqued in 2004.
No burials or cremations took place between May 16, 2007, and September 11, 2007, because of a labour strike. The interments of more than 300 bodies were affected. In addition, its uncut, unkempt grass became a symbol of the labour dispute.
Due to its vast size, locating a specific grave can be difficult. As a result, the cemetery now offers a computerized mapping service that allows visitors to quickly and accurately locate graves. It can be accessed at the cemetery using a touch screen display or via the Internet.
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