Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral for Weathervane Wednesday

This weathervane was photographed in the Old Quebec City, Canada.

Last week I featured a weathercock above the Quebec City church Notre Dame des Victoires, and today I'm featuring another weathercock from Quebec City also from a church named Notre Dame.  This building is the basilica catheral of Notre Dame de Quebec.  This Roman Catholic church was originally built at the site of a chapel built by Samuel de Champlain in 1633. The tower with the weathercock was built in 1744, and you can see in the plans below, the weathercock was included.  

This church building was destroyed twice, first during the Siege of Quebec in 1759 during the French and Indian War, and then in 1922 it was destroyed by fire.  At first the Ku Klux Klan was blamed for the destruction, but the American thief Ray Marsden confessed to the crime, to cover his burglary. In 1874 it was the first church in North America to be elevated to a basilica.  It is the oldest parish in Canada and celebrated it's 350th anniversary in 2014.  Quebec's first bishop, Francois de Laval, is buried in the crypt. 

The weathercock is an important Christian symbol, often found on Roman Catholic churches.  This one is particularly fancy and detailed, in three dimensions with an elaborate cross.  

These are the plans for the cathedral from 1744, used to reconstruct the church in 1759.
The weathercock was included in the original plans.

By Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry - Élévation de la basilique de Québec, Chaussegros de Léry, 1744, BAC, FR CAOM 3DFC 424A. - facebook.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45830176

For the truly curious:

Cathedral Basilica of Notre Dame de Quebec at Wikipedia -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral-Basilica_of_Notre-Dame_de_Qu%C3%A9bec   

The parish website for Notre Dame de Quebec  -  https://www.notre-dame-de-quebec.org/copie-de-basilique-cathedrale   

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral for Weathervane Wednesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 17, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/07/notre-dame-de-quebec-basilica-cathedral.html: accessed [access date]).