Notre-Dame Basilica unveils façade after 10 years

Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal unveiled its restored façade on Sunday after nearly 10 years behind scaffolding, with hundreds of people gathering outside to watch.

The Société philharmonique du Nouveau Monde performed outdoors in front of the building, opening with the first movement of Martín Palmeri’s Misatango, La Presse reported. The concert then moved inside, where organist Jean-Willy Kunz greeted the crowd.

“It had been a very long time since we could see the façade because of the scaffolding. Now it has regained all its splendour,” Jean Desmarteau, who attended with his family, told La Presse (translated from French).

The façade is only the “first chapter of a much bigger project,” said Michel Issa, head of the Fabrique de la paroisse Notre-Dame de Montréal, the parish body that manages the basilica (translated from French). He estimated that about 20 per cent of the work is finished. “We still have at least another decade of restoration ahead of us,” Issa said (translated from French).

The Canadian Press reported earlier this month that the total cost of restoring the basilica’s interior and exterior is $100 million. Issa told the news agency that exterior work could take another four years, a figure he said might prove optimistic, and that interior restoration could take five to 10 more years.

Mathieu Verreault, the basilica’s director of tourism and operations, told The Canadian Press the stone had cracked in several places after years of freezing and thawing. He said some stones were laid vertically, which makes sedimentary stone more permeable to rain, and that some mortar was replaced with epoxy, which increased pressure on the stones.

Inside, moisture has damaged painted decoration. Rather than repaint, the parish is reattaching each flake of paint, work Verreault described as “very labour-intensive, very time-consuming, but it’s best practice in heritage conservation.”

The parish is raising money through benefit concerts, revenue from the Le Firmament café and a campaign that lets donors “sponsor a stone” and attach a digital message to the façade. Those messages will not be viewable until early 2027.

The Société philharmonique du Nouveau Monde will perform Mozart’s Requiem in the basilica’s nave on Nov. 7 for the 22nd year, with more than 200 artists on stage under conductor Michel Brousseau, La Presse reported.

Culture is also in the news elsewhere in the province, where Espace Riopelle opened at Quebec City’s fine arts museum this week, and a Montreal hospital launched virtual ER visits.

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Sources: La Presse (Oct. 25, 2026); The Canadian Press (Oct. 10, 2026).