Hôtel de Ville

Lonely Planet review

Montréal's City Hall is a gorgeous building built between 1872 and 1878. Far from being a hum-drum administrative centre, it's actually steeped in local lore. Most famously, it's where French leader Charles de Gaulle took to the balcony in 1967 and yelled to the crowds outside 'Vive le Québec libre!' ('Long live a free Québec!'). Those four words fueled the fires of Québécois separatism and strained relations with Ottawa for years.

Earlier in the century, city hall was the site of a vicious fire in 1922 spawning a famous story of how the mayor fought the flames to retrieve precious documents. Only the buildings walls were salvageable, so they were incorporated into the new building constructed between 1923-1926 which was based on the city hall in Tours, France.

Peer into the Great Hall of Honor for some scenes of rural Québec and busts of Jacques Viger, the first French-speaking mayor (1833-36) and Peter McGill, the first English-speaking mayor (1840-42). The chambers of the current mayor Gérald Tremblay are adjacent to the Great Hall.