The Jacques Cartier Monument National Historic Site is composed of six cast-iron stelae in shapes that recall the flat pebbles of the Gaspé Peninsula beaches, the mountainous profile of Forillon National Park of Canada and the standing stones of Brittany. The bas-reliefs on the stelae portray the principle scenes of the historic encounter between Europeans and Amerindians on July 24, 1534 when Jacques Cartier erected a cross on the shore of Gaspé Bay before a group of troubled Kwedech (Iroquois).
Texts taken from logs by Jacques Cartier and Father Chrestien Leclerq reveal the significance of this event, which earned Gaspé the title of “Birthplace of Canada." The Jacques Cartier monument, sculpted by the Bourgault-Legros family in 1977 and commissioned by the Canadian Parks Service, is a National Historic Site. It stands next to the Musée de la Gaspésie on a splendid site overlooking Gaspé Bay.