Granby (Quebec)

Granby is a radiant city of 69,025 people (2021) with many recreational tourist attractions in the Eastern Townships of Southwestern Quebec.

The main attractions of the city of Granby are:
 * nature and the outdoors: hiking, biking or in-line skating trails, Yamaska National Park, the Boivin lake, golf clubs in the region;
 * arts and culture: the Palace performance hall, school and CEGEP halls offer a varied program of public performances;
 * entertainment: the Granby zoo;
 * its accommodation capacity, in hotels, motels, lodges, tourist residences or camping;
 * its varied gastronomic offer; the downtown area offers a variety of restaurants, dining rooms, caterers and take-out;
 * its microbreweries and pubs;
 * its agritourism offer;
 * its picturesque built heritage: a heritage circuit allows you to take an interest in the great history of the region.

Understand
Granby is a regional centre for industries (textile, lumber, dairy products) and commercial zone, but is also a tourist town, due to the presence of the important Granby Zoo.

The town is named after John Manners, Marquess of Granby.

History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited sporadically by nomadic First Nations people.

In 1792, Loyalists fleeing the United States were granted permission to colonize the Eastern Townships. In 1803, the Executive Council of Quebec conceded the Township of Granby to Colonel Henry Caldwell and his 97 associates. John Horner, the first inhabitant who settled on the site of the current town arrived in 1813. Horner built a sawmill near the Yamaska River.

Field areas have been exploited for agricultural use and the North Yamaska river's flow has been used for its hydraulic energy since the construction of a first dam in 1815 by large industrial companies; the use of dams along the stream has provoked the formation of a large shallow swamp, called Lac Boivin, often cited as one of Granby's landmarks.

Get in

 * Autoroute 10, the motorway to the Eastern Townships, passes between Granby and Bromont on its way from Montreal to Magog and Sherbrooke.



Do

 * Lake Boivin, Daniel-Johnson Park, and the Centre d'interprétation de la nature du lac Boivin (nature interpretation centre of Lake Boivin) are landscaped with paths all around for bikers and pedestrians. Touching the heart of the town, Lake Boivin has Daniel-Johnson Park on its northern shores, from which residents and tourists practise recreational sports such as navigation and cycling, the park also hosts events for Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Earth day; as well as a self-proclaimed fête de la rivière (river's fest) to honour and clean the North Yamaska River; characteristic hills on the park's premises are very popular for picnicking during the summer and sleighing in the winter. The Centre d'interprétation de la nature du lac Boivin is a non-profit with a mission aimed at conservation of the territory, habitat, fauna and flora of Lake Boivin.

Brome
Southeast of Granby.

Bromont
Directly south of Granby (across the autoroute) is Bromont, the site of the equestrian competition for the 1976 Montréal Olympic Games.

Waterloo
A small village directly to the east.