Piopolis, Quebec

Piopolis is a municipality of about 350 people in Le Granit Regional County Municipality in the Estrie region in Quebec, Canada.

Megantic Lake in Piopolis

Piopolis
Municipality
Location within Le Granit RCM
Piopolis Location in southern Quebec
Coordinates: 45°29′N 70°54′W[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Estrie
RCM	Le Granit
Constituted	January 1, 1880
Government [2]
• Mayor	André St-Marseille
• Federal riding	Mégantic—L'Érable
• Prov. riding	Mégantic
Area [2][3]
• Total	111.70 km^2 (43.13 sq mi)
• Land	103.77 km^2 (40.07 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[3]
• Total	364
• Density	3.5/km^2 (9/sq mi)
• Pop 2006-2011	3.2%
• Dwellings	275
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)	G0Y 1H0
Area code(s)	819
Highways	Route 263
Website	www.piopolis.quebec

The name of the town means, 'city of the Pope' in recognition of the service of loyal Roman Catholics who answered the call by Pope Pius IX to defend The Vatican in 1860. A group of 14 returned Papal Zouaves, led by a missionary priest departed Montreal in 1871 and traveled by rail, stagecoach and on foot to land grants on the borders of the diocese of Trois-Rivières, in the township of Marston, on the edge of Lake Mégantic to build a new city dedicated to Pope Pius IX who they had served in Rome. There they discovered only a small logging camp building.

Piopolis was officially founded on September 24, 1871. All but one of the original settlers left over the following decades. At its peak, the parish's population was in 1932 with 37 families and 523 souls. In 2011, la Halte des Zouaves was opened as a tourist stop on the Route des Sommets to display the history of the Municipality. The present day population is approximately 275 and supports several small businesses, the municipal office, and garage.[4]

References

1. Reference number 49573 of the Commission de toponymie du Québec (in French)
2. Geographic code 30020 in the official Répertoire des municipalités (in French)
3. "(Code 2430020) Census Profile". 2011 census. Statistics Canada. 2012.
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170337/http://www.piopolis.ca/index.php/histoire-de-piopolis accessed September 1, 2020