Abandoned French Catholic Church

After World War II there was a push Catholicism in Montreal neighbourhoods.  These churches were not just places of worship but rather community hubs where regular activities would take place.   Essentially they were community centres with a little razzle dazzle of the good book.  The church has some amazing architecture that is both modern & reamins connected with tradition.



In 2013 the church, although an historic icon shut its doors for the last time.  The rectory was still used as a residence up until at least 2017 which was when I made my first visit with Freaktography.  It was our first road trip to Montreal & things were not going as well as we hoped.  We got into town around midnight with plans of sleeping inside an abandoned mansion only to find that it had been freshly sealed.  We then went to another abandoned church & after a lot of nonsense came to the conclusion it would not be a good idea sleeping in there mostly due to sub par air quality.  We ended up sleeping in the car & got maybe 2 hours of sleep.



After a few fails we ended up at this church!  It was in really pristine condition with only some water on the floor & a few names written in chalk.  It was a very fresh location with only a handful of people to explore it.  We had to be quiet as the rectory was still active & attached to the church.  Our luck that day had been bad so we didn't want to have any run ins with the law!  It was a great explore but not long after, the location spread like wild fire & vandals started doing what they do.



In 2019 Zenning with Zay & I went on a road trip to the city & we decided to seem how things had progressed.  The night before we had partied at an annual explorers only private event in an abandoned factory.  Needless to say, I was a little hungover & tired with some amazing bedhead going on!  I was pretty disappointed in seeing what had happened to the church.  The rectory was torched in early 2019 & there were now many large tags throughout.



It still was very awesome to explore & shoot despite the tagging.  I have been to places that were in far worse condition.  If you look past the graffiti there is still that incredible architecture, rows upon rows of pews, stained glass & other forms of artwork!



These things are unfortunately part of the life cycle for abandoned places.  As much as we hate vandals, they are also the ones will to rip boards off windows & make entry points for explorers giving me the opportunity to explore & document such places! Here are two photos from inside the devastated rectory.



Below is the first video I did here.  Hopefully the one at the top of the page shows significant improvements!

1 thought on “Abandoned French Catholic Church”

Leave a Reply