Trois Rivières

Port in southern Québec province, Canada, at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice River on the St Lawrence, equidistant between the cities of Montréal and Québec; population (1991) 49,400, metropolitan area (1996)143,600. Its natural deep-water harbour serves ocean-going vessels. The chief industry is the production of newsprint; textiles, electrical goods, fabricated metals, and processed foods are also manufactured.

Trois-Rivières was founded as a fur-trading post by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1634, and incorporated in 1857. Its population is mainly French Canadian.

Features Educational institutions include St Joseph Seminary (1663), Marie-de-l'Incarnation College (1697), and a campus of the University of Québec (1969). Religious foundations include the Ursuline Convent 1697, an Anglican church (1699), and a 19th-century Gothic cathedral, the see of a Roman Catholic bishopric.

History The site of Trois-Rivières was originally occupied by a Native Canadian Algonquian stockade. It was named after the three channels which form the outflow of the Saint-Maurice on the St Lawrence. In 1737 the first Canadian industry was established in the settlement; nails, stores, kettles, and frying-pans, previously imported from France, were manufactured. The ruined forges on the Saint-Maurice are now contained within a national historic park. Rapid urbanization followed the development of hydroelectricity on the rivers in the early 20th century.