{"id":741,"date":"2008-04-05T11:50:02","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T16:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2008\/04\/05\/strongman-park\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:30:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:30:10","slug":"strongman-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/05\/strongman-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Strongman Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_4041\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Parc des Hommes-Forts in Saint Henri. Photo taken March 25th 2008<\/em><\/p>\n

“Evocation de l’admiration que provoquait la force physique dans la tradition populaire qu\u00e9becoise.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Parc des Hommes-Forts <\/em>– a sliver of land between the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Antoine streets. One one side of the turnoff, the sign announces that the park serves as “a testimony to the admiration of physical strength in Quebec pop culture.” Across the road stands the bulging bronze statue of Louis Cyr with a barbell at his feet.<\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/a><\/p>\n

Cyr patrolled Saint-Henri area as a police officer between 1883 and ’85 before he began his touring carreer as a strongman. In his greatest feat of strength, he is reported to have lifted 4,337 pounds on his back.<\/p>\n

Around 1888 Cyr bought a tavern on Rue Notre-Dame. This excerpt<\/a> from “The Strongest Man that Ever Lived” describes him amusing his patrons with shows of strength such as lifting his wife over the bar as she sat calmly on the palm of one of his massive hands.<\/p>\n

Upon reading the sign, I was curious to know what other characters populate this Quebecois tradition of Hommes-Forts<\/em>? The legendary<\/a> Jos Montferrand<\/a> (1802-1864) was apparently renown for his kindness as well as his ability to pummel entire droves of English or Irish troublemakers at a time.<\/p>\n

Of course, the other hometown strongman that comes to mind is the Great Antonio<\/a>. As a child, I remember the time my father pointed out his hulking frame down by Berri metro station. He was dressed in filthy clothes with a wild beard and matted hair, selling postcards of himself pulling city buses in bygone days. For me, it was a shocking discovery that a title in the Guinness Book does not, by itself, keep a man afloat. Nor, for that matter, does\u00a0 a series of movie appearances<\/a>. A Compendium of articles<\/a> written after he passed away in 2003, includes anecdotes about the time he pulled the 55 bus up Saint-Laurent against the protests of the bus driver, and the golf club that he managed to fashion out of his own dreads.<\/p>\n

More famous Quebecois Strongmen are apparently in the making at www.hommesfortsduquebec.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parc des Hommes-Forts in Saint Henri. Photo taken March 25th 2008 “Evocation de l’admiration que provoquait la force physique dans la tradition populaire qu\u00e9becoise.” Parc des Hommes-Forts – a sliver of land between the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Antoine streets. One one side of the turnoff, the sign announces that the park serves as “aContinue reading “Strongman Park”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7837,7839,3537],"tags":[358,2110,14,2112,1632,49,2109,292,59,2113,2111],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-neighbourhoods","category-parks","tag-berri","tag-bus-driver","tag-historical","tag-jos-montferrand","tag-louis-cyr","tag-squares-and-parks","tag-police-officer","tag-quebec","tag-st-henri","tag-statue-of-louis-cyr","tag-www-hommesfortsduquebec-com"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStrongman Park - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/05\/strongman-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strongman Park - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Parc des Hommes-Forts in Saint Henri. Photo taken March 25th 2008 “Evocation de l’admiration que provoquait la force physique dans la tradition populaire qu\u00e9becoise.” Parc des Hommes-Forts – a sliver of land between the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Antoine streets. 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