This large open square, designed in conjunction with the cathedral in 1650, became the principal marketplace of the Upper Town in the 18C. Its commercial vocation ended with the construction of City Hall. Placed in its centre, the 1923 Cardinal Taschereau monument by André Vermare, is dedicated to the first Canadian cardinal. The bas-reliefs represent the institution of the Forty Hour Prayer in the diocese, the career of the Superior of the Quebec Seminary and the Cardinal aiding Irish victims of the typhoid epidemic at Grosse-Île, in 1848.