History
The first European to scale the mountain was Jacques Cartier, guided there in 1535 by the people of the village of Hochelega. He named it in honour of his patron, King François I of France. He wrote in his journal:
- Et au parmy d'icelles champaignes, est scituée et assise ladicte ville de Hochelaga, près et joignant une montaigne ... Nous nommasmes icelle montaigne le mont Royal.
- ("And among these fields is situated and seated the said town of Hochelaga, near to and adjoining a mountain ... We named this mountain, Mount Royal.")
The name of the Island of Montreal derives from mont Réal, as it was spelled in Middle French, (Mont Royal in present French). The name was first applied to the island and was unofficially applied to the city, formerly Ville-Marie, by the 18th century.
In 1643, De Maisonneuve made a pilgrimage to the top, in order to fulfill a vow made in the winter season on occasion of a great flood which swept up to the town palisades.
In 1876, land owner and farmer James Swail began residential subdivisions on the western slope of Mount Murray, in what is now the Cote-des-Neiges district. In 1906, a large housing development was started in the area, called Northmount Heights, with homes built along what is now Decelles Street by developer Northmount Land Company. Much of this area has been expropriated by the Université de Montréal.
In 1914-1918, a railway tunnel was dug under the mountain by the Canadian Northern Railway, a predecessor of the Canadian National. It is currently used by the AMT's Montreal/Deux-Montagnes commuter rail line.
The area was briefly considered as the site for Expo 67, before the exposition grounds were ultimately built on islands in the St. Lawrence River.
For the 1976 Summer Olympics, the park itself hosted the individual road race cycling event.
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“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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