It is through postcards that I know of Rue Sous-le-Cap in Quebec City, an ancient narrow street overlooked by footbridges dating from the French founding of the city in 1608. There is no other street like it in Quebec City or elsewhere in North America that possesses its special medieval feeling that has long enchanted locals and tourists alike.
To get there you follow dark passages, starting between two old houses on Rue Saint-Paul. From there you can take Passage de la Demi-Lune. Then between two buildings on Rue du Sault-au-Matelot, the stairs of Passage du Chien connect to Rue Sous-le-Cap.
Rue Sous-le-Cap winds along the foot of the dominating cliff that the people of New France came to call the “Cape of Sault-au-Matelot.” Rue Sous-le-Cap was created in the eighteenth century, before the British defeated the French at the Battle of Quebec City in 1759 for control of Canada.
Coming from Place Royale and Rue du Sault-au-Matelot, this street brought you to the Intendant’s Palace and further on. Houses were built on the north side of Rue Sous-le-Cap, because the estuary of the Saint-Charles River was much wider than it is today. Then, the water in the river touched the back of the houses during high tides. As the owners were unable to build their sheds behind their houses, they built them instead on the south side of Rue Sous-le-Cap, up against the cliff. They also built bridges over the street to connect their houses to their sheds. And to this day this practice continues.
If you visit Rue Sous-le-Cap today, it has a clean and tidy appearance. But until the 1960s, with its puddles, noisy dogs, skinny cats, poorly dressed children begging and clotheslines hanging above the street, Rue Sous-le-Cap was a shabby looking place. The postcards shown here bear witness to this but also testify to the charm of this unique street and depict how changes in modern life have only modestly encroached on
Thanks for the very informative article, Kyle! Quebec is a city that i would love to visit for its beauty and history. Old and newer cards are amazing!
If Rue Sous-le-Cap dates to the founding of Quebec City in 1608, the street was created in the seventeenth century, not the eighteenth.
Great article. My grandparents made a couple trips to Quebec City in the 1920’s. They told me about dogs pulling carts to make deliveries. It might be an interesting topic for a future article if any postcards exist.