Quebec’s Ministry of Culture is rejecting the designation of the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church as a heritage site, three years after the Limoilou Historical Society submitted an official application. The government believes that the building, built in 1917, is not sufficiently distinctive.
The application to obtain provincial classification was submitted to the Ministry of Culture and Communications (MCC) in October 2020. The church, which had been closed for worship since 2012, no longer had any special purpose at the time and a monument protection committee was set up to ensure the continued existence of the building.
Three years later, Quebec officially rejected the request. The property is of historical interest but does not stand out among similar properties, according to a ministry analysis document presented to Minister Mathieu Lacombe and published under the Access to Information Act.
Mr Lacombe appeared before the media on October 31 to announce the addition of 36 heritage items to the national inventory. The forty rejections mentioned by the minister that day, including Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou, did not receive the same attention.
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The bell towers of the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church were restored last year.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Victor Paré
Not distinctive
According to MCC officials, although the church of Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou stands out as representative of the great urban churches of the turn of the 20th century due to its monumentality, it does not particularly stand out in this corpus, especially when compared with the church of Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou Charles de Limoilou churches. Jean-Baptiste and Très-Saint-Sacrement, classified.
In addition to comparisons with other buildings in the city, the church will also be judged against its comparable properties throughout the province. Turn-of-the-century Catholic places of worship that have greater cultural interest than the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church also exist elsewhere in Quebec, the ministry’s statement said.
The State recognizes the importance of the building in the urban fabric of Limoulois, but considers that this impact is limited. The church has scenic value due to its towers, which is a landmark of the district, but which, according to Quebec, is not recognized beyond the boundaries of the district.
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The Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church seen from the air.
Photo: Radio-Canada
In terms of cultural and artistic value, the Limoilou Historical Society insisted on the presence of frescoes by the famous Guido Nincheri, including one of his first works in Quebec. The organization also cited the work of Alsatian painter Martin Feuerstein.
Here too, Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou did not reach the standards.
The place of worship is of artistic value as it has a number of stained glass windows, almost all from the workshop of Leonard & Fischer in Quebec, as well as frescoes by Guido Nincheri. However, these works do not particularly stand out in the work of this workshop and this artist, Quebec nuance.
The church was eventually founded by the Capuchin Friars from Quebec. However, they are not among the most numerous religious communities and have not played a particularly important role in Quebec’s history.
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The altar of the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church in 2020.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Kassandra Nadeau-Lamarche
Disappointment and paradox
Gilles Gallichan, historian and president of the Limoilou Historical Society, admits his disappointment with Quebec’s refusal to protect the building under the heritage law. We are definitely disappointed by this reaction. It is considered a symbolic and important building in the city’s history, he responded in an interview with Radio-Canada.
Mr Gallichan has no doubt about the cultural value of the church and does not rule out asking the government again in the future, but not in the short term.
Paradoxically, he continued, the church of Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou may not be in sufficient danger to receive protection from Quebec. He points out that the building has been listed by the City of Quebec among the eight churches of exceptional heritage value and that it already benefits from financial support from the State under the Cultural Development Agreement.
The ministry often intervenes when emergencies arise when something is demolished.
The bell towers and facade have been restored in recent months to mark the church’s 125th anniversary. The building has been rented by Circus Machine since November 2020, thus ensuring the use and maintenance of the building.
In other words, the Church is not in distress and that may be why Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou is affected, says Mr Gallichan.
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The equipment for the stage was installed in the church by Circus Machine. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Guillaume Croteau-Langevin
The case of Très-Saint-Sacrement
This rejection of the classification comes just over a year after the controversial provincial classification of the church of Très-Saint-Sacrement. Unlike Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou, the latter is not among the churches of exceptional value identified by the city of Quebec.
The church’s classification by the MCC came after its closure in 2019. The parish was forced to urgently condemn the building after allegedly finding structural issues that put users’ safety at risk. Two years earlier, stones had collapsed from the church facade.
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The Très-Saint-Sacrement church was classified by the Quebec government and now serves as a reference church for the Ministry of Culture. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada
John Porter, former president of the committee responsible for identifying churches to be preserved in the Quebec territory, opposed the classification, as did the Diocese of Quebec. By ensuring that everything is heritage, nothing is heritage anymore, he explained after Quebec’s declaration of intent was filed.
Without taking anything away from the Très-Saint-Sacrement church, Gilles Gallichan also believes that the Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou church has greater value. Except that one of them was in danger and the other wasn’t, he summarized.
Different processes
For its part, the Ministry of Culture claims to act independently of the city of Quebec, which is why the results of its analyzes could be different. However, the City of Quebec identified these eight churches using its own assessment methodology. […] and by comparing only churches located on the territory of the capital, argues the MCC.
The ministry, in turn, valued the place of worship according to the applied and recently published method and on the basis of comparable properties throughout Quebec, in particular properties already classified.
Like Mr Gallichan, the government highlights the financial assistance programs already in place for Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou. Classification is not the only way to protect and enhance a listed building, he emphasizes.
According to the State of Quebec, the city of Quebec has an appropriate urban regulatory framework to ensure the sustainability of the church.
This is also the opinion of Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, councilor for cultural heritage in Quebec City. The decision to classify a building or not is the sole responsibility of the Ministry. That is, the church of Saint-Charles-de-Limoilou […] It already enjoys protection at the city level, notably by the Quebec City Planning and Conservation Commission.
In collaboration with Jérôme Labbé