Square-Victoria is a station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). It is located in Victoria Square near the Quartier international de Montréal district, in the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
It was inaugurated on February 6, 1967, four months after most of the initial network, and was briefly the terminus of the orange line until Bonaventure station was opened a week later.
The metro station is a normal side platform station; its central mezzanine is connected to a very long tunnel running along Beaver Hall Hill and under Victoria Square, giving access to its various exits.
Each of the station's exits is connected to another building or buildings via the underground city. The Belmont exit is connected to and located in the 1080 Beaver Hall Hill building; the Viger exit is likewise connected to and located in the Bell Tower/National Bank complex. The Saint Antoine exit is a link in the main part of the underground city, linking the ICAO building with the Centre CDP Capital, while the rotunda at the south end of the tunnel, leading to the Saint Jacques exit, links the Tour de la Bourse with the Centre de commerce mondial.
The station was designed by Irving Sager. Two steel murals by Robert Savoie, entitled Kawari Kabuto, grace the walls of the great volume over the tunnel vaults, and a mural in the pedestrian tunnel to the northern entrances is by Jean-Paul Mousseau. The southern rotunda formerly contained a multimedia installation entitled Ars Natura, promoting Montreal's science museums.
The most famous artwork, however, is one of Hector Guimard's art nouveau entrance porticos from the Paris Métro. One of the few authentic installations on a metro station outside Paris, it was given in 1967 by the RATP (Régie autonome des transports parisiens) to commemorate the collaboration of French and Canadian engineers in building the metro. It is located within Victoria Square on the Saint Antoine entrance, one of only four open-air entrances on the network (the others are located at Place-Saint-Henri and Bonaventure stations). It was recently removed, completely restored, and reinstalled.
The station is equipped with the MétroVision information screens which displays news, commercials, and the time till the next train.
This station is named for Victoria Square, which has existed since 1813; it was renamed for Queen Victoria on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to Montreal in 1860.
October 8, 2018