resurrect the debate as late as 1986. Mont Saint-Hilaire in culture Mont Saint-Hilaire, owing to its stark form, has always played a significant part in the culture of the nearby region. It is an important regional icon, its silhouette appearing in the symbols of many towns and cities of the region, such as Beloeil, McMasterville, Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Otterburn Park. In art Several artists have painted Mont Saint-Hilaire over the years. The first was the English painter John Bainbrigge, who made three separate watercolour paintings of the mountains around 1838, while garrisoned in the region. A few decades later, the mountain also appeared in a painting by Cornelius Krieghoff. However, the famous artists most closely linked with the mountains are the three who were born or lived in Mont-Saint-Hilaire itself over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth century: Ozias Leduc, born in 1864 in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, his student Paul-Émile Borduas, also born in Mont-Saint-Hilaire in 1905, and finally, Jordi Bonet, who, after emigrating to Québec, settled down at Mont-Saint-Hilaire in 1969. Leduc especially is known for his numerous representations of the mountain in several paintings such as L'Heure Mauve and Neige Dorée, but the mountain also inspired the work of Borduas, such as his Le Trou des Fées and Synthèse d'un paysage de Mont-Saint-Hilaire, and Bonnet, who included the silhouette of the mountain in several of his works. In religion Some evidence suggests that Mont Saint-Hilaire, particularly the Pain de Sucre summit, was a sacred site of the Algonquin natives, who conducted rituals there. Despite a slow establishment in the region (the first two parishes at the foot of the mountain, Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Saint-Hilaire, were only established in 1796 and 1798), the Catholic Church soon established itself on the mountain. In 1841, a great wooden cross was built atop the mountain, more than high and across, with a chapel at its base. The cross was hollow, allowing visitors to climb to the top. A winding trail was established leading up to the mountain, with stations of the cross along the way. The cross was destroyed in a storm in 1846. It was replaced in 1871 by a stone chapel, which burned in 1876. In legends Oral tradition in the area surrounding Mont Saint-Hilaire has recorded several legends concerning the mountains. Local figures such as the painter Ozias Leduc and local historians Armand Cardinal and Pierre Lambert have set down in