The City of Montreal
Montreal is the largest city of the province of Quebec in Canada, as well as the second-largest metropolis of the country (after Toronto). As of 2006, Montreal had a population of 1,620,693 (3,635,571 for the whole metropolitan area). Being part of Quebec, the city has the third-largest French-speaking population in the world, after Paris, France and Kinshasa, Zaire/Democratic Republic of the Congo.
To say that the city is an important cultural, economic, artistic, religious, and educational hub in Canada, would be an understatement. In 2006, it was proclaimed a UNESCO City of Design, one of the three design capitals of the world. Montreal is abundant in tourist destinations (both man-made and natural), which is why it is the second most visited city in Canada with approximately 13 million foreign visitors a year. Montreal maintains a healthy balance between urbanity and "green-ness", a trait which was affirmed when the city was ranked the 10th cleanest in the world in 2007.
The city was originally named Ville-Marie, but gradually became known as "Montreal", after Mount Royal, the three-head hill at the heart of the city. The mountain is home to Parc du Mont-Royal, one of Montreal's largest parks and popular attractions. The city is also referred to as "Two Cities in One" due to the existence of the Underground City, a set of pedestrian levels built to cross under streets and extending over downtown Montreal. There are days when half a million people use the underground city, especially in winter.
The Pre-European island of Montreal was inhabited by nomadic Native American peoples, especially the Iroquois. The first Europeans to arrive in the area were the French, who established the first permanent European settlement on the island in 1642 (in the form of Ville-Marie). In the early 1950s, Montreal's population surpassed one million; decades later, the city stamped its mark on the world by hosting the 1967 International and Universal Exposition and the 1976 Summer Olympics.