Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time), by using the blue link-up button below.
Église Saint-Vincent Ferrier – Montréal
Note: I’m travelling this week so I may be a little slow in getting around to everyone’s posts. Remember, if your post is on our link-up list it gets visited first and I retweet it as well. So please, make it easier for me and everyone else to find you: click on the blue froggie button below and add your post to our link-up list.
Found on Jarry St. E. in the city’s north end borough of Villeray, Église Saint-Vincent Ferrier was built in 1930-31.
Despite the fact that it’s one of the largest Catholic churches in this part of the city, I had a difficult time finding out much about this place.
Designed by local French Canadian architect Ludger Lemieux, who also designed the city’s famous Atwater Market, the church exterior is built from locally quarried stone.
I’ve driven past this building hundreds of times over the years but this was the first time I actually made of point of stopping to properly check the place out with my full 360-degree walk-around.
Sadly you can tell you’re in a densely populated urban setting whenever you see wire/metal grilles protecting ground-level side doors and windows.
As you can see, they saved the “pretty” for the front part of the building 😉
And the connected residences next door.
As you saw in one of the first shots the main entrance doors are simple yet quite majestic, especially in early morning light.
And here’s a bonus door/teaser for an upcoming post of residential doors in the same neighbourhood.
Nothing is more uniquely a Montréal architectural feature than our crazy outdoor winding spiral staircases.
As always, thanks so much for dropping by 🙂
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I’m particularly drawn to that rust out awning. I have no clue why, but it just seems fabulous. But all of the shots have something remarkable about them. 🙂
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Norm, I liked the white spiral staircase, the green part of the Catholic Church dome tower and the arched wooden set of doors. The inlaid quality of the glass pieces in one of your photos was on my mind, too.
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Green patina bell towers, carved doors, iron work above doors, and wonderful, and unique staircases to gain entry to doors…I LOVE them all!
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Yes, majestic.
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I agree 🙂
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beautiful church and doors. Love the staircase.
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Glad you enjoyed 🙂
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Arches! Brick and stonework! And, oh, I do so love those ironwork staircases. I sure would hate to carry a heavy package up one, especially on ice, but they’re lovely to look at.
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Thanks Marian. You’re right about those staircases; they are not for the faint of heart 🙂
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Those featureless twin red doors look like they could be part of some kind of modern art installation. Not sure what for, but there is some intrigue there. You’re certainly right though – the best doors are at the front (and rightly so!)
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An art installation…or maybe a prison, right? I’m sure there was a fair amount of vandalism over the years and plain metal doors and steel grating ended up being the simplest solution.
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Great doors! And those spiral cases are fantastic (as long as I don’t have to use them)!
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Staircases, of course…
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Thanks Angela 🙂
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That’s unusual isn’t it, a white winding staircase? Aren’t they usually black?
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You know what? You’re right, they generally are black – or some other dark colour; but rarely white. Maybe that’s why this one jumped out at me the second I saw it.
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Good eye 🙂
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Great selection! The green domes stand out on the church, as do the majestic doors. The ornate white staircase made me smile.
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Thank you – glad you liked it 🙂
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Good mercy. That third shot is grand. The lettering alone is remarkable, but the layers of details as well. Wow. Really love the entire front — the circles and the arches and the iron and the colored glass all set in that stone. The back is interesting on its own, and I like 8150’s texture. Fab feature for today.
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Thanks Joey. I’m not sure how they go about doing the lettering but it always found caring in stone to be a fascinating and admirable skill. I mean if you get it wrong…well there’s no backspace button 😉
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Heh, true!
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What a lovely neighborhood, the church us gorgeous! 🙂
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Thanks Brenda – I agree 🙂
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That spiral staircase is amazing… and clever. Fabulous doors and facades. That Padre’s digs are pretty nice!
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The Padre always gets some nice digs 😉
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Beautiful church, but wonder why the towers are green (copper maybe?). The decorative stone of the connected building gives it a definite distinction. I like it! The doors of the door and balcony door but the spiral staircase remind me of Europe – they have different numbers, so I guess that means 2 different houses!.
Hope you’re having an easy time when traveling for work!
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Yes it’s copper. It turns green after a time when exposed to the air, rain, snow…etc.
The usually format for these places is one large residence with 3-4 bedrooms downstairs and 2 smaller apartments with 1-2 bedrooms each on the upper level.
Travel went smoothly – thanks 🙂
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Interesting house setup – a new thing for me.
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Fabulous doors and great photos. Reminds me of my, too brief, visit to Montreal some years ago.
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Thank you Luccia 🙂
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All the doors look a little down on their luck, like they’re a day late and a dollar short. The spiral staircase is unique. Truly.
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Thanks Ally. Yes it seems like the blew the budget on the front of the building and kinda neglected the rest of it 😉
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Such solid architecture – wow. I do love the spiral staircase but I don’t think I’d like to have to tote groceries up those stairs.
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Thank you Jan. No those stairs are not for the faint of heart 🙂
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I demand a spiral staircase from my second floor to the ground floor, stat. I’m soooo going to loves me some Canada.
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There are several neighbourhoods here where you’ll find plenty of those staircases.
Have you given any thought yet to when you might be visiting?
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It’s looking like next year. Need to save more $ first. 🙂
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Great selection, as usual, Norm. The rectory looks like Dr Hannibal Lector’s house in the series “Hannibal”.
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Thanks Ian 🙂
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Wonderful doors and great photos, Norm. I love the photos you included that highlight the architectural details. I like the big doors, the arched doors the wooden doors with glass panes but the staircase and balcony in the last photo puts that photo at the top, today.
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Thanks Dan. I’m planning on doing another post featuring that style of staircase in a few weeks so stay tuned for more 🙂
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What a gorgeous church. I love the contrast of colors.
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Thanks Carrie. It was the perfect time of day to get subdued golden light.
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I adooor all the doors!
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Thank you 🙂
By the way, it looks like the WordPress spam filter is still eating my comments on your blog. To release me from spam prison just go to the “comments” section of the “admin” dashboard in WordPress and check in either “pending” or “spam” – I’m sure you’re going to find several of my comments in there. Cheers!
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oh! found one!
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I really liked that common (narrow) stairway for 8162 and 8164!
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You’ll see some more of those staircases in an upcoming post so stay tuned 🙂
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Nice one Norm. Love the golden hour door.
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Thanks sherry. The light high clouds were causing me fits by messing with my gorgeous light but luckily the sun poked out enough for a few nice golden shots 🙂
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This style of bell tower on a church always grabs my attention and especially the double towers with the crosses on top. To me, this is quintessential French Roman Catholic.
In the small town I grew up in, we had only 1 bell tower and the church was VERY modest compared to this one. This building is so deeply ingrained in my memory, I wish I had photos – especially of the interior. It was eventually torn down and rebuilt as a modern 70s style building.
It is too bad about the need for all the metal grating though. It does detract from the overall look.
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It is too bad about the grating but kind of understandable in the city. Yes this style of church tells you right away that you’re in french Canada.
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I’m always impressed by the stone churches in Canada! Such gradeur!
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Yes those French Canadian Catholics sure loved building their grand churches 🙂
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Growing up in Montreal we had one of those staircases to the back garden and I hated having to go down it.
Eventually the fire marshall said it had to be replaced.
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That reminds me that we had one out the back of our 3rd story apartment when we were kids too. My bro and I could fly down that thing so fast, we probably never realized how close we were coming to a near-death experience each time we did 😀
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I love the outdoor spiral staircases in Montreal. It gives so much character to a building.
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It does indeed. Thanks Colline 🙂
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My entry for Thursday doors
Pingback is not being generated I don’t know why
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Thanks for sharing and welcome to Thursday Doors 🙂
The pingback worked but it had to be approved by me first since it was your first post.
The best place for your link is on the link-up list and I see that you figured that out already – cheers!
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I rather like the simpler doors with the more elaborate church and I love the stone. Those winding staircases are quite something but I imagine they could be a bit slippery in winter! I’m in a French mode today as well.
janet
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Thanks Janet. I’m thinking they blew the budget on the front of the building so decided to go simple and plain around the sides and back 😉
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Our ancestors certainly were craftsmen that built buildings to last. This is a beautiful example. Love the different color from the stone work to the top part. And, you definitely get the feeling you aren’t welcome to try those doors with no handles. The wrought iron staircases are always fascinating to see so thanks for sharing this one. I always look at it and think about carrying furniture and groceries up and down, in all kinds of weather, all year long. Safe travels, Norm. 🙂
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Thanks Judy. Back home already. It was a good, productive trip 🙂
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Some interesting doors there, but the rather ugly doors with amazing spiral staircase at the end there really caught the eye.
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Thanks. You’re right though, they can’t all be beautiful 😉
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Oh, yes, majestic is right. Also good with all the crazy spirals, bring them on!
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Thanks Manja. Stay tuned, more staircases to come later this spring 🙂
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I can’t believe the back of that gorgeous building is so ugly. I love the spiral staircase, we’re looking for a second-hand one for our house, but indoors.
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They put all of the emphasis on the front I guess. Especially in the city, there’s not many who’ll walk all the way around a church to check it out. Only weirdos like us door fans 😉
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Wow, love the ones with the spiral staircase. Some beauties this week!
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Thanks Sarah. Stay tuned, you’ll be seeing more of those staircases in an upcoming post 🙂
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