Going to hang around Montreal for another story; this one is about a popular spot in Old Montreal, Place du Canada.

During spring, summer and fall, you can see all sorts of Montrealais(e) enjoying the lunch or just taking in the scenery in and around the square.

It is a popular place and as you can see in the photo, a very pretty one but….and isn’t there always a “but”, beneath their feet lie the metaphorical and literal skeletons from Montreal’s past.

In this case, the Sainte-Antoine Cholera Cemetery; estimates are hard to come by but safe to say, thousands of people were, in some cases, all too quickly turfed during the cholera and typhus epidemics, some in mass graves, beginning in 1832. The largest admitting period for the cholera victims – some of them, horrifically, not quite dead, was between 1832 and 1854.

In deep rooted Montreal tradition, roadwork had been planned and this included widening of streets, encroaching on the cemetery. Bodies were being exhumed. Cholera and typhus victims’ remains. The citizens objected – vocally and applied pressure. No one wanted the plague dead transferred through the city. So, the remaining bodies were left where they were, in some cases, unceremoniously, dumped.

The city decided to build a park, this way they were not obliged to move anymore bodies. So under those picturesque walkways, park benches and flowers, lie the hapless bodies of ex-Montrealers.

The square, understandably, is known for its….atmosphere, most often, after dark. A lot of people have reported feeling nervous and uncomfortable; some have claimed to have heard prayers and in some cases, strange shapes, mists and even orbs have been observed.