Day 7 | Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (History)

We start Day 7 like all the other days, in the boring old smelly hotel.  Today we decide to go learn about The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. Thanks to Vik, we wake up early at a stunning 10:45 and we head down to breakfast. When we get there we smell the aroma of bacon, eggs, and hash-browns. Then, we left at 11:10 and planned to get there around 11:40 but traffic was bad, we got there at just after 12:00 pm. We learned that The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was finally done being constructed around August 28, 1804. The church houses two parishes, the parish of Quebec and la Paroisse de Tous les Saints. Parish means a small administrative district in which a church operates.

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is the first Anglican cathedral to be built outside the British Isles. Built between 1800 and 1804, the cathedral introduced Canada to the British Palladian style of architecture. While it was under construction, King George III commissioned the Royal Goldsmiths, Rundell and Bridge, to create an exceptional 10-piece silver Communion Service for the new Cathedral. These items including pure silver wine glasses and bowls which were used during communion, a time when Christians would honor Christ's death by eating bread and drinking wine.

The palladian style architecture is Venetian and combines the designs of pantheons and temples of the Greeks and the Romans. Palladio, the creator of palladianism, sent his foreign students around the world to build structures influenced by his art style. 

The British adopted this style for a short time before having it cut short from the English Civil War which they engaged in. The austerity, or spending cuts, which followed suppressed the art. As you can see, there are many similarities between this cathedral and the temples of Greece. The arched doors represent symmetry and perspective as well as divinity and equality. The cathedral also has the use of Venetian windows - also arcs - which were mentioned in Palladio's books and teachings. The facade, or frontage, of the cathedral also has a triangular rooftop which is also adopted from Roman architecture.  Vik was starting to get hungry so we only stayed there for two hours. All of us except Brian (who is the pickiest eater alive) had a wonderful lunch at the Brasserie Française chez Jules. It is a four star near the Cathedral. Corey got a Puoding Chomeur, a French delicacy which was brought the French-Canada. It is a cake covered in maple syrup and has a scoop of cream laid on the bottom left corner. Eddie got the same as Corey, Vik got a plate of poutine without beef sauce and Brian got Ramekin Tourtières, pastries in a cup, and I ate Foie Gras Poutine, poutine with more cheese and special sauce.  

We went back to the cathedral after some time of walking and attempting to burn the calories we had gained in Quebec. The cathedral was thunderously silent. The people there prayed without uttering a word. We walked down one of the halls when we saw a plaque. It was named a National Historic Site in 1993. Next to this was a large folio bible. It looked old and unused, therefore being put on display. The communion silver-ware was also set aside in a different display case. We heard bells ringing above us. We looked up and could hear seven or eight bells! There are eight bells on top of the cathedral. They began deteriorating and were sent London in 2006, and were reinstalled in 2007. We heard the organ as well as people speaking near the altar. 

The priest was churning bread into the body of Christ and wine into the blood. We decided to leave to the hotel because we were tired. Along the way, we grabbed some really hot coffee to rid our bodies of the chills that we received from the blizzard outside. Corey and I got hot chocolate while Vik and Eddie got mochas. Brian bought a pastry and devoured almost immediately. We left to our hotel and took showers. There was not much to eat, so Brian supplied with some chips. We wrote this blog and went to bed.