Grand-Pré National Historic Site

The marsh

Acadians built dykes to hold back the tides at Grand-Pré

Pierre Melanson and his family first settled Grand-Pré about 1680, coming from Port-Royal. The Acadians built dykes along the Minas Basin and made rich pastures and fertile fields. Grand-Pré became the bread basket of Acadia.

Evangeline

A poem of 1847 drew tourists to a village that no longer stood

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published the poem Evangeline in 1847. Grand-Pré, forgotten for almost a century, became popular with American tourists. A bust of Longfellow by Sir Thomas Brock stands on the site.

Herbin

A jeweller and poet bought the land in 1907 to protect it

John Frederic Herbin, poet, historian and jeweller, whose mother was Acadian, bought the land believed to be the site of the church of Saint-Charles. He built a stone cross to mark the church cemetery, using stones from what he believed to be Acadian foundations.

The church

The memorial church was finished in 1930, the 175th anniversary

The Dominion Atlantic Railway raised a statue of Evangeline in 1920. Work on the memorial church began in the spring of 1922 and the interior was finished in 1930, the 175th anniversary of the Deportation. The church opened as a museum.

1755

In 1755 the men and boys of Grand-Pré were ordered into the church

On 5 September 1755 Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow told them that their goods were forfeited and that they and their families would be deported. In all, 12,000 Acadians were deported, and many died from drowning, starvation, imprisonment and exposure.

12,000Acadians deported in all