Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, French soldier, founded Montreal (died 1676)

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve was a French military officer and the founder of Ville-Marie, now the city of Montreal.

Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked mountain around which the early settlement was built. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal and a few, much smaller, peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is 196 km (122 mi) east of the national capital, Ottawa, and 258 km (160 mi) southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City.