The first coat of arms of Montreal was designed by Jacques Viger, the first mayor of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, and adopted in 1833 by the city councillors. Modifications were made some one hundred five years later and adopted on 21 March 1938, and again on 13 September 2017, resulting in the version currently in use. The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

was the only city emblem representing Montreal until 1981, when a stylized logo was developed for common daily use, reserving the coat of arms for ceremonial occasions.

History

The first coat of arms was displayed on a white shield, which had a red

saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltatori ...

with four different charges between the arms, representative of the four main components of the population as viewed by Mayor Jacques Viger and the city council in 1833, when the arms were designed and adopted. To the top, a rose was for the English heritage of the population, the

dexter Dexter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Dexter, the main character of the American animated series '' Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003 * Dexter, a fictional character in the British web series ''Diary of a Bad Man'' * Dext ...

a thistle for the Scots, the

sinister Sinister commonly refers to: * Evil * Ominous Sinister may also refer to: Left side * Sinister, Latin for the direction "left" * Sinister, in heraldry, is the bearer's true left side (viewers' right side) of an escutcheon or coat of arms; see de ...

a sprig of clover for the Irish heritage of the city, and to the bottom base a

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

for the French that originally settled the territory and traded in furs. The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The ...

of the shield in the first coat of arms was as follows: ''Argent, a saltire gules between in chief a rose of the last leaved and slipped, in base a beaver to the dexter with a branch, and in fess a thistle leaved and slipped and a sprig of shamrock proper''. The

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. M ...

on the scroll below the shield is ''Concordia Salus'', a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

phrase translated as "salvation through harmony" or in French as "''le salut par la concorde''". In 1938, the city council requested that the arms be updated to better reflect Montreal's population. The changes replaced the saltire with a cross, which is reminiscent of both the

St. George's Cross In heraldry, Saint George's Cross, the Cross of Saint George, is a red cross on a white background, which from the Late Middle Ages became associated with Saint George, the military saint, often depicted as a crusader. Associated with the ...

often associated with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, and also with Christian missionary missions that could represent the principles of the French Catholics that founded the city. The beaver had become a general symbol of Montreal and its industriousness by this time period, and no longer merely represented the original French settlers, thus it was moved to ensign the shield. In place of the beaver on the shield, a blue fleur de lys was added to symbolize the descendants of the original French settlers. The rose, thistle and clover remained. The shield was surrounded by a wreath of

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prim ...

leaves to symbolize the amicable relations between the various elements of Montreal's population and an allusion to the maple as a national emblem of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. The Latin motto was retained. In 2017, the city council decided to add a symbol representing the Indigenous Peoples, a white pine in a circle on the middle of the cross.

Blazon of the arms

The Canadian Heraldic Authority granted the current version of the coat of arms in September 2017. The

of the arms is as follows: :''Argent on a cross nowy Gules a white pine tree eradicated Or between in the first quarter a fleur-de-lis Azure, in the second quarter a rose, in the third quarter a thistle and in the fourth quarter a shamrock all proper; and for the crest, a beaver couchant on a log proper; the same surrounded by a spray of maple leaves Vert, with the motto CONCORDIA SALUS.''

National symbols

The five

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. ...

designs found upon the shield are traditional national symbols in their own right, with each one alluding to a specific historical device used by a state or nation. The fleur de lys was long used by the French Royal Houses, such as the

House of Bourbon The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spani ...

, in their coat of arms and was found upon the national flag of the French during the time Montreal was founded, and was also used as a mark of honour or favour by the King of France. The first European settlers in possession of the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...

hailed from France, and thus are represented by this symbol. The

Red Rose of Lancaster The Red Rose of Lancaster (blazoned: ''a rose gules'') was the heraldic badge adopted by the royal House of Lancaster in the 14th century. In modern times it symbolises the county of Lancashire. The exact species or cultivar which it represents i ...

was used as a symbol of the English Royal

House of Lancaster The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. The first house was created when King Henry III of England created the Earldom of Lancasterfrom which the house was namedfor his second son Edmund Crouchback in 126 ...

, and has become a symbol of the English people as well. Traditionally known as a

trefoil A trefoil () is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings, used in architecture and Christian symbolism, among other areas. The term is also applied to other symbols with a threefold shape. A similar shape with four ring ...

, the

shamrock A shamrock is a young sprigging, sprig, used as a symbol of Ireland. Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, is said to have Saint Patrick#Patrick uses shamrock in an illustrative parable, used it as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity ...

was a symbol to early Irish Christians of the trinity. It has endured to become a symbol of the Irish people. Found in various folklore of the Scots since Roman times, the

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves ...

has also been long used in the compartment of the Scottish royal coat of arms, and has been symbolic of the Scottish people long before

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

. The white pine symbolizes the Indigenous Peoples and stands for Peace and Harmony. It also represents the Circle of Life and the council fire – a place for meeting and dialogue for the First Nations.

Logo

In 1981, with an attempt to

modernize Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...

the city's use of such emblems, Montreal introduced a logo for common municipal use, while the coat of arms would be reserved for the most formal of ceremonies and events. The device consists of the city's name with

accent mark A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

as found with the French spelling and a stylized rosette that is itself composed of four hearts. Officially, the type is to be in black and the rosette in red, but a few variations exist for printing purposes when the set colours would not contrast well on documents. Greater Montreal attempted to unify the City of Montreal with the other eighty-one surrounding municipalities under one logo in 2006. The logo that was introduced consisted of a stylized 'M' meant to look, as the design firm put it, "deliberately chubby, very welcoming, like a comfy chair." However, the logo received much negative criticism for its "patchwork of hot pink, tangerine, rhubarb, turquoise and green apple", that was viewed as childish in implement and likened to

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

paint,

Smarties Smarties are colour-varied sugar-coated chocolate confectionery. They have been manufactured since 1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Company in the United Kingdom, and now by Nestlé. Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of abou ...

jelly beans Jelly beans are small bean shaped sugar candies with soft candy shells and thick gel interiors (see gelatin and jelly). The confection is primarily made of sugar and sold in a wide variety of colors and flavors. History It has been claime ...

, garbage and even vomit. Public sentiment grew increasingly negative when it was discovered the cost of the ill-received design was $1,487,000 paid out from the public fund. Montreal itself continues to use the 1981 logo, and even Greater Montreal has since dropped the design they themselves introduced.

References

External links

* * * {{Montreal