Description of Historic Place

Sainte Anne Processional Chapel National Historic Site of Canada is located just off the road in pastoral surroundings at 660, rue des Érables, in Neuville, Québec. Featuring elements of vernacular and neoclassical architecture, it is a small early 19th-century rubblestone processional chapel with a gable roof, Roman-arched apertures, and a high belltower. The designation refers to the chapel on its footprint.

Heritage Value

Sainte Anne Processional Chapel was designated a national historic site of Canada in 2000 because:
- it is a building of exceptional value defined by its well-preserved condition on a site remarkably intact from the time of the chapels construction ca. 1830.

The heritage value of this site resides in the remarkable integrity of both the building and its site and in its design, composition, details and materials, as well as in its special function.

The Sainte Anne Processional Chapel illustrates a building type strongly associated with a medieval Christian tradition transplanted to New France during the seigneurial system and maintained in Québec until the mid-20th century. On the feast of Corpus Christi, and especially during the novena to Sainte Anne, worshipers come here in procession from the nearby parish church. This chapel, which displays elements of vernacular and neoclassical architecture, was built around 1830 on the site of an earlier one dating from 1697. With its original form, walls, window and door openings, façade, and three-part belltower, the Sainte Anne Processional Chapel is an eloquent reminder of this popular religious tradition, which has continued uninterrupted to this day.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, November 1999, December 2003.

Character-Defining Elements

Key features contributing to the heritage value of this site include:
- its siting, standing independently along an historic road;
- the rectangular footprint of the chapel, its compact single-storey massing under a steeply pitched gable roof with bellcast eaves, and a high three-part belltower;
- its small size, simple open interior volume with niche and end-gable entrance with a central door and balanced fenestration on its side façades;
- its neoclassical features such as the Roman-arched apertures, the fan-shaped wood lights capping its doorway, its prominent cornice, its heavy returned eaves, the circular stone entrance steps, and its layered belltower;
- its use of local materials and craftsmanship including solid rubblestone walls, wood shingle roofing, paneled wooden door, wooden shutters, fan, cornice and window surrounds, its wood and stone gables, and metal cross;
- the integrity of its interior furnishings and fittings, particularly the plaster walls, wood floors, altar, side tables, rail, raised sacristy, wall hangings and plaque;
- its functional role in association with the celebration of Corpus Christi, and the novena to Sainte-Anne.