Samuel de Champlain, the city’s founder, had a chapel built here in 1633. It was replaced 14 years later by Notre-Dame de la Paix, the first stone church in colonial Québec. In 1674, it became a cathedral. After the building was destroyed by the British in 1759, the current Neoclassical-style church opened in 1843. In 1984, Pope John II gave Our Lady of Québec City the status of a minor basilica. This was the first one in North America. Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral is a National Historic Site of Canada.
