Sainte-Croix, Quebec

Sainte-Croix
Municipality
Aerial view of Sainte-Croix
Location within Lotbinière RCM
Sainte-Croix Location in southern Quebec
Coordinates: 46°37′N 71°44′W
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Chaudière-Appalaches
RCM	Lotbinière
Constituted	October 5, 2001
Government
• Mayor	Stéphane Dion
• Federal riding	Lévis—Lotbinière
• Prov. riding	Lotbinière-Frontenac
Area
• Total	72.40 km2 (27.95 sq mi)
• Land	69.54 km2 (26.85 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	2,352
• Density	33.8/km2 (88/sq mi)
• Pop 2016-2021	0.5%
• Dwellings	1,148
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)	G0S 2H0
Area code(s)	418 and 581
Highways	R-132 R-271
Website	ville-sainte-croix.ca

Sainte-Croix (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃t kʁwa] ) is a municipality in and the seat of the Municipalité régionale de comté de Lotbinière in Quebec, Canada. It is part of the Chaudière-Appalaches region and the population is 2,352 as of 2021. The new constitution dates from 2001, after the amalgamation of the parish and the village of Sainte-Croix.

Sainte-Croix's name refers to the True Cross, but was in use well before its foundation in 1713. In fact, the seigneurie of Sainte-Croix was granted in 1637 to the Company of One Hundred Associates at a point named Platon Sainte-Croix (Holy Cross Flats in English), at the mouth of the Jacques-Cartier River. It had been named as such by Jacques Cartier, who had spent the winter of 1535-36 there. Samuel de Champlain explained in 1613 that there had been a mistake and this was not the place where Jacques Cartier had wintered. The point is now called Pointe Platon ("Plato (or Flat) Point").

History

The seigneury of Sainte-Croix was one of the first fifteen seigneuries to be granted in New France. It was granted on January 16, 1637, by the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, under Henri de Lévis. It was granted to the Ursulines of Quebec. Father Jérôme Lalemant took symbolic possession of the seigneury on 14 September 1647 on their behalf. He erected boundary stones on the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross, which commemorated the invention, in the sense of the discovery, of the true cross, reconquered from the Persians in 628. The parish's toponym is derived from this festival.

The first settlers arrived around 1680, including the family of Louis Houde on 13 February 1682, who was then living on the Île d'Orléans. He acquired nine arpents of land on a plateau by the river from the Ursulines of Quebec. A first chapel was built in 1694 near the river on land donated by Louis Houde. A second church was built in 1732 on the main road. Settlement of the seigneury was slow, as the only road was the river's navigable waterway. The Chemin du Roy was opened to traffic as far as the seigneury in 1718.

On the banks of the river, the Ursulines built their first flour mill in 1754, which remained in operation until the construction of another mill in 1801 at the top of the hill.

The parish was canonically erected in 1721, but civilly erected in 1845.

In 1846, Pierre-Gustave Joly, seigneur of the seigneury of Lotbinière, purchased part of the land of Pointe-Platon from the Ursulines, a point of land bordering the seigneuries of Lotbinière and Sainte-Croix on the St. Lawrence River. He had a manor house built there, to be known as Maple House in 1851, and used it as a summer residence.

The municipality of Sainte-Croix we know today was created in 2001 when the village and the parish were merged to form the new municipality.

Economy

South Shore Furniture is based in Sainte-Croix and has a factory in the municipality.

External links

• Media related to Sainte-Croix, Quebec at Wikimedia Commons
• Commission de toponymie du Québec
• Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire