Churches, presbyteries and old villages, La Petite-Nation's heritage

If you want to know who built a village, look at its church. That works especially well here. French Canadians, Scots, Irish, Germans and Belgians all opened up La Petite-Nation, and each of them left a steeple behind.

Here's a tour of the region's heritage, from big stone churches to little wooden chapels, plus the presbyteries that found new lives and the walking routes to see it all.

Along the Ottawa River

Papineauville

Sainte-Angélique church has a stone façade and a tall steeple. Out front stand a few works from the 2023 art symposium. The village also has a small Anglican church, Saint John's, in white clapboard.

The Papineauville heritage walk covers the rest, including the old town hall, a grey building with black shutters. The municipality provides the brochure.

Montebello

Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours church is brick, and it hides something: a hundred-year-old Casavant organ that's been brought back to working order. On October 23, 2026, the assistant titular organist of Notre-Dame de Paris comes to play it. The church square is also home to the Christmas market and the summer Music Sundays.

For the rest of the village, the Montebello heritage walk has 25 interpretive stands, with audio clips in the Anekdote app. Don't miss the old log railway station beside Route 148, or Maison Charlebois, a big yellow house with green trim. And set apart on the Papineau estate is the Gothic Revival stone funerary chapel, built from 1853 to 1855 and rebuilt in 1933.

Fassett and Thurso

In Fassett, Saint-Fidèle church has a stone façade, red doors and a bell tower. In Thurso, Saint-Jean-l'Évangéliste is stone as well. The town is named after Thurso in Scotland, home of the Scots who opened up Lochaber Township in the early 1800s. For the industrial side of the story, walk the Singer trail on the old Thurso & Nation Valley Railway line: panels, archival photos covering a hundred years, and eight public artworks.

Plaisance

Plaisance's church is red brick with a silver steeple. The parish was founded in 1900 under a mouthful of a name, Cœur-très-pur-de-la-Bienheureuse-Vierge-Marie-de-Plaisance, before becoming plain Plaisance in 1931. Older still is North Nation Mills, Joseph Papineau's mill village, whose remains are near the Chutes du Moulin.

The Scottish and English townships

Lochaber and Lochaber-Partie-Ouest

Scottish Highlanders arrived here in 1802, and you can still read it on the map. In Lochaber: Gore United church, Gore Baptist church, and the Gore United and MacGillivray cemeteries. In Lochaber-Partie-Ouest, little St. Thomas Anglican church, in white wood, dates from 1876, and the Lochaber Bay cemetery from 1845. You'll find it at the corner of Rang 5 and Montée du Quatre.

Mulgrave-et-Derry

Founded in 1870, mostly by German and Irish settlers. There's St. Matthew's Lutheran church and its presbytery, where the historical society runs an exhibit on pioneer families, by reservation June to September. There's also the Ave Maria chapel, and the former Our Lady of Light church, now a cultural centre.

Mayo

A corner of Ireland. The municipality was founded in 1864 as the Parish of St. Malachy. Next to St. Malachy's Church, Father Clément Braceland had a replica of the Knock shrine in Ireland built after a trip to his ancestors' homeland. The shrine is open year-round, and a pilgrimage returns every summer on the Sunday closest to August 15.

The middle and the north

Saint-André-Avellin

The church here is grey stone. The 22-stop heritage walk starts at the Pioneers Museum: the footbridge, the old winter vault, the church, the old houses, the grotto on Mont Saint-Joseph. Beside the museum, the Chemin du temps displays Jean-Pierre Desrosiers's scale models, including the 1888 church, which took him nearly 400 hours.

Along the way, look for Maison L'Ancestrale, stone with a white double porch, and the brick buildings of the Sisters of Providence. Gîte Gil-Ann on rue Principale is in a Victorian house from around 1889, recognized as a heritage building.

Chénéville

Saint-Félix-de-Valois church, in stone, with a pointed steeple. The Route d'Hercule-Chéné is the village's interpretive circuit, named for Pierre Hercule Chéné, who opened the first post office in 1864.

Montpellier, Namur and Duhamel

In Montpellier, Notre-Dame-de-la-Consolation church and its yellow former presbytery. The village grew out of a general store and post office opened in 1892.

In Namur, founded around 1870 by Belgian settlers, Saint-Paul United Church is a small white wooden church with a pointed steeple. In the village, Le Salon des inconnus, an inn and artist residency, fills an 1898 Victorian house.

In Duhamel, the little white Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel church. Interpretive panels along the trails mark the village's historic sites.

Presbyteries with second lives

One of our favourite things about this region: old presbyteries coming back to life.

• The Manoir de Ripon, the former presbytery, now run as a collective. It houses Café des orties, the Le Deuxième chapitre used bookstore, an artists' collective and affordable housing.
• Château Saint-Émile in Saint-Émile-de-Suffolk, a presbytery from around 1937, restored as a place to stay.
• St. Matthew's presbytery in Mulgrave-et-Derry, now an exhibition space.

And in Lac-des-Plages, En Piste has renovated village buildings, including the old 1886 post office.

Two places of memory

In Saint-Sixte, the 1886 chapel burned in July 2015. The community built a new one.

In Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, Mont-Salettin: about 200 steps up to a cross that's lit at night. The village remembers April 26, 1908, when a stretch of the Lièvre's bank slid into the river and 34 people died.

Churches are places of worship first. To see inside, ask the parish, or catch a concert like the one in Montebello.

PapineauvilleMontebelloSaint-André-AvellinChénévilleThursoFassettMontpellierPlaisanceNamurDuhamelMayoMulgrave-et-DerryLochaberLochaber-Partie-OuestSaint-SixteRiponSaint-Émile-de-SuffolkNotre-Dame-de-la-SaletteLac-des-Plages

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