 Claude de Pontbriand, the Seigneur de Montréal, accompanied the French explorer Jacques Cartier on his expedition up the Saint Lawrence River, and was with him on October 3, 1535, when he reached a village of the unknown nation called Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, called Hochelaga, on the site of the present day city of Montreal.The Pontbriand family built the château in its current form.They also built the chapel Sainte-Épine.