Founded in 1854, Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is a 343-acre (1.39 km²) cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of chemin Côte-des-Neiges and up the slopes of Mount Royal. The cemetery shares the mountain with the predominantly English-speaking and originally Protestant burial ground, the Mount Royal Cemetery.
Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is the largest cemetery in Canada. Its "La Pietà Mausoleum" contains a life-sized marble reproduction of Michelangelo's Pietà sculpture located in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
The cemetery was originally open only to Roman Catholics; it is now open to any Christian, though it continues to be a Catholic institution and serve a primarily Catholic community. Primarily the internment grounds for French Canadians, as they have almost exclusively been members of the Roman Catholic faith, the cemetery is the final resting place for a number of former mayors of the city of Montreal plus other prominent persons including:
Charles Wilson (1808-1877), businessman, mayor of Montreal
Marcellin Wilson (1859-1940), financier, philanthropist, statesman
No burials or cremations took place between May 16, 2007 and September 11, 2007 because of a strike. More than 300 bodies were affected by this labour disruption.1 In addition, its uncut, unkept grass became a symbol of the labour dispute.
