Bandeau Le Phare

Phare de Pointe-des-Monts

1830 Chemin du Vieux Phare, Baie-Trinité, QC G0H 1A0
(418) 939-2400
[email protected]
Web https://pharedepointedesmonts.com/

Pointe ‑ des ‑ Monts lighthouse
Built on a rocky outcrop that forms an islet at high tide, the Pointe-des-Monts lighthouse bears witness to a time when navigation in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was perilous.

Shipwrecks
At the beginning of the 19th century, the increase in maritime trade between the United Kingdom and its colonies in Canada multiplied the voyages of ocean-going tall ships and also, inevitably, shipwrecks. These often occurred during the dreaded autumn storms and the castaways risked dying of cold and hunger while waiting for hypothetical help along a deserted coast for hundreds of kilometers.

It is in this context that the maritime authorities decided to set up a network of lighthouses to guide ships and provide refuges with a reserve of food for survivors of shipwrecks.

The second lighthouse of the St. Lawrence
After that of Île Verte (1806), the Pointe-des-Monts lighthouse was the second to be erected in 1829-1830 on a point that ancient geographers, since Samuel de Champlain himself, classified as a demarcation point. between the river and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Barely saved ...
Threatened with demolition by the federal government's Department of Transport after its decommissioning, the lighthouse was acquired by the government of Quebec, then classified as a historic monument in 1965. Today, it is considered a major element of the country's maritime heritage. Since 1987, its management has been entrusted to a non-profit organization whose members come from local and regional backgrounds, the Corporation de Promotion et de Développement du site du Phare de Pointe-des-Monts.