Books, children’s games or a bowling alley have replaced crucifixes, prayer benches or candlesticks: in Montreal, churches are escaping neglect by reinventing themselves.
“I really enjoy coming here. I like the little “church feeling,” it promotes concentration in the workplace,” whispers Alexia Delestre, a master’s student in the Mordecai Richler Library.
In one of the central and fashionable districts of the metropolis, this library replaced the pews of an Anglican church, the wooden arches and the large stained glass windows are still there, above the hundreds of books.
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“In general, we don’t want to destroy churches if we can preserve them, because they are beautiful buildings that clearly mark the urban space. “These are important landmarks,” said Justin Bur, 58, a member of Mémoire du Mile-End, a group that specializes in the neighborhood’s history.
Further north on the island of Montreal, the 1960s Sainte-Germaine-Cousin Church was saved from demolition at the last minute and is now home to a daycare center, a retirement home and public housing.
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Its imposing white concrete structure, its high cross and an adjacent “S”-shaped building do not go unnoticed in the landscape. Inside, seating and children’s toys give the rooms an atypical geometry with their high ceilings and large windows.
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“It really is the Rolls-Royce of daycares,” notes Isabelle Juneau, assistant manager of the daycare, noting the place’s modernist architecture and brightness.
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“City of 100 Bell Towers”
Across the province of Quebec, other churches have been converted into spas, bowling alleys, basketball courts, climbing centers and cheese factories.
But many are unsuccessful in their move and are left behind in Montreal, once nicknamed the “City of 100 Towers” by American writer Mark Twain, who declared that you couldn’t throw a stone “without breaking a stained glass window.”
The abolition of a church maintenance tax in the 1960s and Quebec society’s general disinterest in religious practice contributed to the abandonment and decline of many places of worship.
“There are no more priests, no more religious practices. Society has moved on to something different,” explains Lucie Morisset, urban heritage researcher.
“A few years ago there were around 2,800 churches in Quebec and that number is decreasing every day. There were about a thousand churches in Montreal at the beginning of the 20th century, but today there are about 400,” she adds.
Most churches in Quebec were Catholic and Anglican.
According to the Quebec Religious Heritage Council, around a hundred people have been converted over the past 20 years. About ten have been demolished, about forty have been remodeled or are in the process of being remodeled, and the remainder have changed their religious vocation.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of work
And the transition isn’t always easy, which is exacerbated by runaway inflation. Experience the former Catholic church of Saint-Mathias-Apôtre in a central neighborhood on the island of Montreal.
“It cost several hundred thousand dollars to convert the church into a community restaurant: the entire basement was converted into a kitchen, the area had to be decontaminated…” says Marc-André Simard of the Chic Resto restaurant. Pop.
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This facility for the neighborhood’s underprivileged population serves more than 300 affordable meals every day and offers vocational training to the unemployed. All amidst the woodwork, colorful stained glass windows and confessionals that are still there.
For him, it is “essential that the entire religious heritage is not abandoned,” because it can serve as a “communal space” and “place of residence.”