It was built in 1965 and 1996, as part of a renovation campaign at Assumption Cathedral aimed at replacing the crypt with a community room in the basement.

This modern monument, which includes a mausoleum with ten tombs and a funeral chapel, was built according to the designs of architects Jean-Claude Leclerc and Roger Villemure.

[1] Its installation here is no accident, for the 1962 cemetery plans by landscape architects Benoît Bégin and Georges Daudelin foresaw a chapel in this location.

It is set in a large open space offering multiple views of the mausoleum across the cemetery.

Architect Jean-Claude Leclerc exploited this perspective by creating a gap in the monument, allowing the cemetery's calvary to be seen from the entrance.

It was separated at the same time as the diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe, in order to bring diocesans closer to Church administration.

The entrance was moved back from Boulevard des Forges, and plans were made to build a funeral chapel in the center of the cemetery.

As the redevelopment of the Saint-Michel cemetery called for the construction of a funeral chapel in its center, it was decided to include the mausoleum in the project.

Georges-Léon Pelletier, commissioned the first designs from architects Jean-Claude Leclerc and Roger Villemure.

Although the latter had been in initial contact with the bishopric, it was his partner Leclerc who took charge of the project with his assistant, designer Victor Pinheiro.

When the project was presented to the diocese, the concept of the voiles was maintained, but it was decided to give two distinct forms to the mausoleum and the chapel.

The chapel would illustrate an impetus towards the sky, while the mausoleum would be a massive volume anchored to the ground.

Leclerc describes it as follows:[5] "[...] it will not be an ordinary building, but rather a central monument usable for three main purposes: bishops' tombs, interior and exterior religious ceremonies, and one of the stations of the Cross, all of which should be the center of gravity and set the tone and development of the heart of the cemetery.

The architects and probably the engineers offered their services without remuneration, a customary practice at the time for a project involving a diocese or factory.

Jean-Claude Leclerc and Paul Guay, abbot of the Évêché de Trois-Rivières, were interviewed the same year to establish a heritage evaluation file.

The building consists of two parts: a 60-seat funeral chapel and a mausoleum containing ten tombs, five of which are occupied.

It has a small, rounded sacristy with a vertically striated concrete surface, a common technique in Brutalist architecture of the period.

The roof, which is set much lower than the one on the chapel, is composed of two thin hyperbolic paraboloid sails supported by a central beam and the walls.

The main walls are marked by conventional formwork lines, while the roof retains traces of the wooden planks used in the blown-cement construction method.

This beam, a cantilevered horizontal plane with no visible support, gives the impression of floating in mid-air.

[13] The entire structure is imbued with symbolism and plays an important role in the architectural aspect of the monument.

The dichotomy of the whole (lightness and massiveness, light and shadow, openness and closure, momentum and restraint) evokes the metaphor of mind and body, and perfectly reflects the dual Christian symbolism of the soul's ascent after death and the body's entombment.

In the mausoleum, he incorporates a number of formal references from the Notre-Dame-du-Haut chapel and the Sainte-Marie de La Tourette convent, such as the massive walls, concrete sails, gargoyles, and other details.

The review of this work comes from a Docomomo Québec newsletter published in 1994 and written by architect Daniel Durand.

He writes of the mausoleum: "the general form is not as finished as one might expect, given that it was designed by Leclerc and Pinheiro".

His reputation led the bishop of Québec in 1835 to appoint him parish priest of Trois-Rivières and Cap-de-la-Madeleine, as well as vicar general and member of the corporation of the Nicolet seminary.

He left for Western Canada to found the Île-à-la-Crosse mission with Alexandre-Antonin Taché, evangelizing the Amerindians between 1846 and 1849.

Highly politicized, he was involved in issues as diverse as the creation of the Université de Montréal, which he supported.

He supported Taché and his successor Louis-Philippe-Adélard Langevin during the second Métis uprising, the hanging of Louis Riel, and the Manitoba Schools Question.

Among the laity were a number of town's dignitaries, including seigneur Joseph-Michel Boucher de Niverville (1808-1870), his son Louis-Charles Boucher de Niverville (1825-1869), lawyer, mayor and deputy of Trois-Rivières, and judge Dominique Mondelet (1798-1863).