Precursors Fort and château Saint-Louis In 1620,
Samuel de Champlain was ordered to stop further exploration of
New France, of which he was
lieutenant governor, and instead was asked to engage solely in administration of the newly discovered lands. He therefore ordered the construction of a fort on
Cap Diamant, the easternmost extremity of the
Promontory of Quebec. Even as the short-lived governments of the and of the were substituted for a more stable
Company of One Hundred Associates in 1627, it was not until 1648 that the one-storey Château St. Louis, built by Governor
Charles de Montmagny, became the first permanent official residence of the government of New France. However, by late 1680s, the construction was in a very poor state. A bigger residence on the foundations of the old one was built in 1694 by Governor
Frontenac, and was finished thirty years later. The site is today covered by the
Terrasse Dufferin, in front of the
Château Frontenac.
Château Haldimand In 1784, the governor of the
Province of Quebec,
Frederick Haldimand, ordered the construction of a new building, which was completed three years later. It was a residence of the colonial government from 1786 to 1791, and then of the governors only, until 1811. The
Château Clique, which had an outsized influence over Quebec's governance, met there regularly with the governor. Château Haldimand was demolished in 1892 to make way for the construction of the Château Frontenac.
Old Parliament Building The Old Parliament Building was built in 1693-1695 by the bishop of the
diocese of Quebec,
Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, as the seat for the bishopry, and is also therefore known as the Episcopal Palace of Quebec. However, its purpose was changed in 1777, when the government of the province of Quebec started renting the building from the Catholic Church. The Legislative Council, which was a largely advisory body, was seated there. The government attempted to gain ownership of the property from the
Roman Catholic Church. After several unsuccessful attempts of negotiation with the archbishop, Bernard-Claude Panet, he eventually agreed to transfer the ownership rights in 1831 thus the building became colonial property in August 1832. It was subsequently rebuilt for the expansion of the government offices. Other victims were the museum of the
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and half of the collection of the parliamentary library. The area that used to be the Episcopal Palace is now part of
Parc Montmorency.
Post office With the Old Parliament Building destroyed, the legislature was left with no building to operate in. They quickly accepted the offer of the
Sisters of Charity to rent their convent as a temporary seat of parliament. But on 3 May 1854, during works on repurposing the building, another fire ruined the new wing of the house they intended to use as a meeting place for the legislature. It also bought a parcel of land from the federal government in July 1876 for that purpose, and it is on these two lots of land that the new building, which was to host the government (including ministries), the legislature and the
lieutenant governor's office, was constructed. The design works were assigned to
Eugène-Étienne Taché, an architect who was then working at the provincial ministry of public works. He chose to build a new seat for government and parliament in a building with a style harkening back to the
French Renaissance, instead of the British-style architecture in
Ottawa. it was nevertheless called a "construction of the century", with up to 400 workers employed to erect the seat of parliament. The building process itself was marred with problems.
Simon-Xavier Cimon, the entrepreneur who won the contract to build the Parliament Building, was deeply unpopular. The workers, whose wages went down from 60
¢ to 50¢ in 1878, went on
strike, demanding they be paid twice the sum. With tensions escalating, the employment of
strikebreakers failing and the then
Premier of Quebec,
Henri-Gustave Joly, attacked on the street, the demonstrations were suppressed by the military in June 1878. In total, three more strikes occurred by the time the whole complex was built.
Following inauguration After its opening, most of the works concerned the decorations of the building and around it. In 1888, a clock at the top of the tower was installed. Two years later, a fountain in front of the entrance, dedicated to the
Abenaki, was inaugurated. Four years after that, statues of various political and intellectual figures of importance to Quebec were mounted in niches in the walls of the building. , one of the four buildings that were later added to the parliamentary complex The building initially hosted all major executive and legislative offices of the province of Quebec as well as the parliamentary library. However, by the turn of the century, the government decided to expand their working spaces and moved some of their offices to adjacent structures. The first was Édifice Pamphile-Le May, which was added in 1910–1915 to host the . It was also at that time that a parliamentary restaurant, , was opened in the courtyard (renamed in 1970). A decade later, the Édifice Honoré-Mercier was built to house several ministries, including the office of
premier, which was in the building from its construction until 1972 and from 2002 on.
Édifice Jean-Antoine-Panet and
Édifice André-Laurendeau were erected in the 1930s, for the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Agriculture, respectively. The latter building is now the main office of the lieutenant-governor. In 1985, the Parliament Building, along with several adjacent buildings and terrain, were declared a national historic site (). As such, it taken away from the control of the provincial
Ministry of Culture and Communications, and municipalities, to ensure operational independence. In 2016-2019 a new entrance with enhanced security and additional space for parliamentary committees were built for $60.5 million. ==Exterior==