Leonard Cohen's Montreal

Leonard Cohen was born Sept. 21, 1934. His father, Nathan Cohen, ran a clothing business. His mother, Masha, came from a Lithuanianfamily of Talmudic scholars. Nathan Cohen died was Leonard was nine. His funeral was held at the family home, 599 Belmont Avenue, in Westmount.

Scions of the Westmount Jewish community

Cohen's family were prominent members of the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in Westmount. Portraits of his grandfather and great-grandfather still hang in the synagogue. Cohen had his bar mitzvah here. The synagogue's cantor, Gideon Zelermyer, lent his vocals to Cohen's last album, You Want it Darker.

McGillmythologies

As an undergraduate at McGill, Cohen published poems in astudent paper called the Forge, and many were later included in his first collection,Let Us Compare Mythologies.

His mentors at the time included IrvingLayton, who wasin the process of reinventing Canadian poetry by daring to reference Nietzsche and sex. "I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever," Cohen would later say ofLayton. He was apall-bearer at Layton's funeral in 2006.

Downtownsmoked meat

In the smoked-meat heydays of Montreal, few delis were more popular than Bens, at the corner of de Maisonneuve Boulevard and Metcalfe Street. Its clients, over the years, included everyone from Liberace to Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Cohen was a regular at the deli, which was open into the early hours of the morning. "Into these special places in the city and Bens is one of them is drawn this very urgent cross-section of people who have somehow committed the first rebellious act that a man can perform: refusingto sleep," Cohen saidin a 1965 NFB documentary.

Bens was torn down in 2008 to make way for a luxury hotel.

Our lady of the harbour

Cohen's debut album features a song about aMontrealerwho "takes you downto her place near the river," where "sheshe feeds you tea and oranges / that come all the way from China."

The song, about dancer SuzanneVerdal, includes the line"And the sun pours down like honey / On our lady of the harbour." Cohen is referring to the Virgin Mary that stands atopNotre-Dame-de-Bon-SecoursChapel, also known as the Sailor's Church, in Montreal'sOld Port.

Plateau home

Despite spending most of his time in Los Angeles, Cohen kept a home in Montreal since the 1970s. It borders Parc du Portugal. He's told interviewers that he has done some of his best writing inthe kitchen in the duplex.

Cohen fans have been leaving tributes on his doorstep since his death was announced Thursday night.

Read more about Leonard Cohen

• 'Tell them Leonard Cohen sent you': Fetching smoked meat and other stories of meeting the legend
• Leonard Cohen's death strikes chord around the world
• 'He was totally unlike anybody else': Judy Collins remembers Leonard Cohen
• Leonard Cohen's most memorable songs and lyrics