Kent Gate

The Kent Gate is a narrow, stone archway spanning Rue Saint-Jean, topped with a steep, copper-roofed tower. It dates back to eighteen seventy-eight, built to accommodate the increasing horse-drawn traffic moving in and out of the walled city. During the construction, workers unearthed the foundations of an older, eighteenth-century fortification buried beneath the street. The gate stands today as a functional transit point, designed by architect Joseph-Ferdinand Peachy to blend with the original colonial walls while solving the city's modern congestion problems.