St. Peter's Church and the cemeteries
Forillon National Park
St. Peter's Church
The Anglican faithful of the southern coast of the Forillon Peninsula have been gathering every Sunday in Petit-Gaspé since the 1840s. Several founding families of Grande-Grave attended St. Peter's Church, including the Dolbels, Roberts, Bartletts and Gaveys.
Construction of St. Peter's Church began in 1864 and was completed in 1885. Admire its gable roof with upturned drip edges (inspired by Quebec domestic architecture), its bell tower topped by a cross with a weathervane, its large arched side windows as well as the semicircular transom window, and the oculus above the entrance gate.
St. Peter's Church adopted a unique late 19th-century Protestant church architectural style: the classical vernacular. (There are only a few examples in Quebec, such as Christ Church in Stoneham.) The exceptional craftsmanship of its wooden framework, whose layers of planks are reminiscent of the construction of a ship, bears witness to a traditional know-how influenced by marine carpentry.
Location: The St. Peter's church and its cemetery are located in Petit-Gaspé (South Area).
Cemeteries
Forillon National Park has five heritage cemeteries:
- St. Matthew's Anglican cemetery in Penouille and St. Peter's in Petit-Gaspé,
- the Saint-Augustin and Grande-Greve United Church Catholic cemeteries in L'Anse-Saint-Georges,
- and the Methodist/Grande-Greve United Church cemetery in L'Anse-aux-Amérindiens.
We invite you to respect the sacred character of these sites by moving around calmly and by preserving the privacy of visitors who come to meditate.
They also have a high heritage value. The history of the settlement of Forillon is literally engraved in stone: the journey of the pioneer families, the diversity of origins and religious denominations, the linguistic and cultural blending, etc. The rituals that continue to be practised there, more than 50 years after the creation of the park, bear witness to the sense of belonging of the former residents of Forillon and their descendants.
Stories Carved in Stone
Traces of human settlement in the Forillon region can still be seen today, particularly in the form of burial sites. Forillon National Park is home to five heritage cemeteries open to the public. These cemeteries illustrate the diversity of the settlers’ origins and religious beliefs, as well as the coexistence and intermingling of the pioneering families who settled the area.
To find out more about the heritage cemeteries in Forillon National Park.
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