Montréal (Côte-des-Neiges)

Côte-des-Neiges (formerly: Côte Notre-Dame-des-Neiges) is a sociological district of the city of Montreal located north of the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough. It is located in the center of the island of Montreal on the western slope of Mount Royal and is crossed in its center by the Côte-des-Neiges road. It had a population of 92,870 in 2013

Cut out in 1698, at the time of New France, as one of the nine interior coasts of the seigneury of the Island of Montreal, Côte Notre-Dame-des-Neiges officially became the village of Côte-des-Neiges when the Côte-des-Neiges road opened in 1862. The village was split in 1889 and then entirely annexed to the city of Montreal in 1910. Long agricultural, the district became urbanized in its entirety after the Second World War.

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, it is home to the campus of the Université de Montréal (main building, Roger-Gaudry Pavilion) and its affiliated schools (Polytechnique and HEC Montréal), the Sainte-Justine University Hospital, the Jewish General Hospital and Saint Joseph's Oratory.

Côte-des-Neiges is the most cosmopolitan neighbourhood on the island of Montreal.

The toponym "Côte-des-Neiges" is an abbreviation of Coste-Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, the name it was given at the time of its concession in April 1698.

A "coast" is a territorial division within a seigneury at the time of New France. Côte Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is the oldest inland coast of the Seigneurie de l'Île-de-Montréal.

The coast is said to have been named in honour of the devotion of the founder of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal, Marguerite Bourgeoys, for Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Today called the Dedication of Saint Mary Major, the legend of Our Lady of the Snows has it that in 366 the Holy Virgin appeared to a wealthy childless couple and, at the same time, to Pope Liberius to request the construction of the current Basilica of Saint Mary Major on the site that would be designated by snow that fell on August 5.