Laval

Sister cities

• Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
• Manila
• Petah Tikva
• Laval
• Botoșani

History

The first European Settlers in Laval were Jesuits, who were granted a seigneury there in 1636. Agriculture first appeared in Laval in 1670. In 1675, François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of the seigneury. In 1702 a parish municipality was founded, and dedicated to Saint-François de Sales (not to be confused with the modern-day Saint-François-de-Sales in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean). In 1845, after nearly 200 years being of a rural nature, additional municipalities began to be created. The only built-up area on the island, Sainte-Rose, was incorporated as a village in 1850, and it remained the main community for the remainder of the century. With the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-des-Rapides became Laval's first city in 1912, followed by , which was granted village status three years later. Laval-sur-le-Lac was founded in the same year and had its tourist-based economy based on Montrealers. Laval began to grow throughout the following years because its proximity to Montreal made it an ideal suburb. To deal with problems caused by urbanization, amalgamations occurred; L'Abord-à-Plouffe amalgamated with and Saint-Martin, creating the city of Chomedey in 1961. The amalgamation turned out to be so successful for the municipalities involved that the Quebec government decided to amalgamate the whole island into a single city of Laval in 1965, not without controversy. Laval was named after the first owner of Île Jésus, François de Montmorency-Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec. At the time, Laval had a population of 170,000. Laval became a Regional County Municipality in 1980. Until then, it had been the County of Laval. The 14 municipalities, which existed prior to the incorporation of the amalgamated City of Laval on 6 August 1965,…

Geography

The island has developed over time, with most of the urban area in the central region and along the south and west river banks. Laval is bordered on the south by Montreal across the Rivière des Prairies, on the north by Les Moulins Regional County Municipality and by Thérèse-De Blainville Regional County Municipality and on the west by Deux-Montagnes Regional County Municipality across the Rivière des Mille Îles. Laval experiences a four-season humid continental climate (Koppen: Dfb) with very warm summers and very cold winters with adequate precipitation year-round, though more so during summer and early fall.

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  119,729
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  116,279
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  100,102
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  98,708
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  88,223
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  83,360
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  83,093
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  82,083

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2026-04-21
  23 km NE of Saint-André-Avellin, Canada
• M 2.7 — 2026-01-20
  26 km N of L'Orignal, Canada
• M 2.7 — 2025-10-14
  4 km NNW of Chazy, New York
• M 2.5 — 2025-01-01
  6 km SSE of Fort Covington Hamlet, New York
• M 2.6 — 2024-10-02
  7 km ENE of Chertsey, Canada
• M 3.8 — 2024-09-01
  5 km SE of Pierreville, Canada