A building in the distance dominates Cape Diamant in this watercolour by Cockburn. It is the Citadel, which was built in 1831. It was Champlain who first thought of such a stronghold in 1630, but the project was abandoned at that time for lack of funds. Since Québec City’s earliest days, the cape has also been a social boundary. It separates the uptown elite from the Lower Town’s working class.