History Articles

This sculpture, by Québec artist Yves Trudeau, was completed in 1984 and offered to the Town of Gaspé by the Government of Québec in honor of the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s arrival in Gaspé. “Hard edge” in its expression and with “minimalist” tendencies, the Discovery Place Monument explores the historic events of 1534, reminding us of Cartier’s caravel with its forecastle, deck and sails - a ship’s prow, waves, a beach and the Indigenous settlement that once existed where the monument now stands.

The Mi’kmaq occupied this land centuries before the first Europeans arrived and were probably the first Indigenous people to have regular contact with Europeans.This may have occurred as early as the eleventh century with the early Viking settlements on the coast of North America.The Mi’kmaq were skilled hunter-gatherers, attuned to the shifting, seasonal resources of the area and were noted for their fishing skills and their distinctive birch bark canoes that were capable of crossing open water.

The Jacques Cartier Monument National Historic Site is composed of six cast-iron stelae in shapes that recall the flat pebbles of the Gaspé Peninsula beaches, the mountainous profile of Forillon National Park of Canada and the standing stones of Brittany. The bas-reliefs on the stelae portray the principle scenes of the historic encounter between Europeans and Amerindians on July 24, 1534 when Jacques Cartier erected a cross on the shore of Gaspé Bay before a group of troubled Kwedech (Iroquois).

The earliest settlements in Acadia (1604) were among the first efforts to establish a French colony in the New World. Located in what has become Nova Scotia, originally named Arcadia by Verazzano in 1524, this historical Acadia was the result of sustained immigration from France, mainly after 1632.