Snow Sculptures & Legislative Building

Touring Our Cities Snow Scultpures and the Manitoba Legislative Building

West view



Legislature north view

  Was the intent of saturdays adventures! But it didn't work out the way I had planned! With our milder then usual winter the sculptures did not last too long, most of them are looking worse for wear. Some better pictures that I found on internet can be seen here.
Note the Golden Boy standing above the dome, more information on him below.



Queen Elizabeths
60 years on the throne

 This is an ice sculture in front of the legislative building in the shape of a coin to commemorate Queen Elizabeths Diamond Jubilee, it is kind of hard to see in my picture, but here is a good clear picture of it.  The sculpture was lit up at nite until mid Febuary. 
The Diamond Jubilee Medal was created in honour of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, to recognize Canadians from all walks of life who have made significant contributions to Canada or whose achievements abroad have brought credit to Canada. A total of 60,000 Diamond Jubilee Medals will be given to Canadians throughout the year.

The inaugural set of 60 medals was presented on the first day of Diamond Jubilee Week (February 6-12) which launches the Diamond Jubilee Year in Canada. This date commemorates Her Majesty The Queen’s accession to the throne on February 6, 1952. This excerpt taken from here.

Golden Boy

The Golden Boy, "Eternal Youth", or Mercury.  Each one of the four corners of the copper dome supporting the Golden Boy has a stonework grouping representing the four elements of alchemy, earth, air, fire and water. They are identified as Agriculture, Science, Industry and Art.[5] The dome is 223 feet 7 inches (68.15 m) above the main floor. The height of the central tower without the Golden Boy is 242 feet (74 m). The statue was first installed in 1919, originally called Eternal Youth, and sculpted by Parisian artist Georges Gardet. The Golden Boy was last regilded and refurbished in 2002, and is illuminated by floodlights. I copied this information from Wikipedia.


At the Legistature Buildings

 These sculptures are made prior to The Festival du Voyageur which is held in mid Febuary of each year.  The art pieces are sculpted by international teams in Voyageur Park in St. Boniface as well as scattered thoughout Winnipeg.  With our less then usual snowfall this year, man made snow was trucked in for the artists to work their magic.
The information and photos about the Festival is on the Voyageur Pages.

There are many activities and much entertainment going on throughout Voyageur days, jigging, fiddling, beard growing contests, pea soup tasting to name a few. Great entertainment to break up, what can be a long winter.

This information on Fort Gibraltar was taken from here.  There is much more interesting information so please visit.



Entrance to Fort Gibraltar

Originally constructed at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in 1809-10, Fort Gibraltar was a North West Company fur trading post. Although not terribly important in terms of the volume of furs that passed through her gates, Fort Gibraltar did play an impressive role in the development of the Red River Settlement and the legendary conflict between the two fur trading empires: the North West and Hudson’s Bay companies. Fort Gibraltar was reconstructed by the Festival du Voyageur in 1978.

These are some of the buildings on the Fort Gibraltar site.  This is all located within Whittier Park in St. Boniface Winnipeg MB.


Club d'escalade de St. Boniface (CESB),
A short distance away is the local climbing clubs ice wall which was quite interesting.  We watched a climber make his way to the top of the 60 foot structure and then make his quick decent.

Ice climbing in Winnipeg

Discover and enjoy your city
Until the next adventure
Jean9