Sights in Montréal
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Jardin Botanique
Montréal’s Jardin Botanique is the third-largest in the world, after London’s Kew Gardens and Berlin’s Botanischer Garten. Since its 1931 opening, the 75-hectare garden has grown to include tens of thousands of species in 30 thematic gardens, and its wealth of flowering plants is carefully managed to bloom in stages. The rose beds in particular are a sight in summer. Climate-controlled greenhouses house cacti, banana trees and 700 species of orchid. Bird-watchers should bring their binoculars. A popular draw is the landscaped Japanese Garden with traditional pavilions, tearoom and art gallery; the bonsai ‘forest’ is the largest outside Asia. The twinning of Montréa…
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Biodôme
At this captivating, kid-friendly exhibit you can amble through a rainforest, the Arctic Circle, rolling woodlands or along the raw Atlantic oceanfront – all without ever leaving the building. Be sure to dress in layers for the temperature swings. The four ecosystems house many thousands of animal and plant species; follow the self-guided circuit and you will see everything. Penguins frolic in the pools a few feet away from groups of goggle-eyed children; the tropical chamber is a cross-section of Amazonia with mischievous little monkeys teasing alligators in the murky waters below. The Gulf of St Lawrence has an underwater observatory where you can watch cod feeding alon…
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Morgan Arboretum
This arboretum holds the country’s largest grouping of native trees: fragrant junipers, cedars and yews but also exotic species like ginkgo, cork and yellowwood. There’s a wonderful trail map and the area is perfect for a long hike in the woods, strolling through magnolia blossoms or having a family picnic. Spring and fall offer the best colors. The grounds of the arboretum serve as an educational facility for McGill’s MacDonald agricultural school. There are several species of wildlife and reptile, and it’s also a stop for 170 species of wintering or migratory birds, making it a thrill for bird-watchers. In winter, this is a beautiful location for cross-country skiing. L…
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Parc des Rapides
This space on the St Lawrence is the spot to view the Lachine Rapids (and the jet boats that ride them). The park attracts hikers, anglers and cyclists who pedal the riverside trail, and it’s a renowned bird sanctuary –located on a small peninsula, with what’s said to be Québec’s largest heron colony. The 30-hectare sanctuary is an important site for migratory birds, with some 225 species passing through each year. Some information displays relate the history of the rapids and of the old hydroelectric plant on the grounds. You can rent kayaks and sign up for classes where you’ll learn to surf or kayak the Lachine Rapids – scaredy-cats need not apply. Kayak Sa…
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Centre Canadien d’Architecture
A must for architecture fans, this center is equal parts museum and research institute. The building incorporates the Shaughnessy House, a 19th-century grey limestone treasure. Highlights in this section include the conservatory and an ornate sitting room with intricate woodwork and a massive stone fireplace. There’s also a busy, well-stocked bookstore. The exhibition galleries focus on remarkable architectural works of both local and international scope, with a particular focus on urban design. The CCA’s sculpture garden is located on a grassy lot overlooking south Montréal, but separated from the main grounds by busy Blvd René-Lévesque.
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Westmount Park & Library
The lovely Westmount Park encompasses pathways, streams and concealed nooks that recall the whimsical nature of English public gardens. At the western boundary the Westmount Public Library stands stolid, with its Romanesque brickwork, leaded glass and delightful bas-reliefs dedicated to wisdom. Two fine buildings are attached: the Westmount Conservatory (a Victorian greenhouse) and the Victoria Jubilee Hall, fronted by a beautiful floral clock. Both can be visited during business hours.
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La Ronde Amusement Park
Québec’s largest amusement park, La Ronde has a battery of impressive rides, including Le Monstre, the world’s highest wooden roller coaster; and Le Vampire, a corkscrew roller coaster with gut-wrenching turns. For a more peaceful experience, there’s a Ferris wheel and a gentle minirail that offers views of the river and city. Concerts and shows are held throughout the summer, and fireworks explode overhead on weekend evenings (when the park stays open later).
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Basilique Notre-Dame
The grand dame of Montréal’s ecclesiastical treasures, this basilica is a must-see when exploring the city. The looming neo-Gothic church can hold up to 3000 worshippers and houses a collection of finely crafted artworks, including an elaborately carved altarpiece, vibrant stained-glass windows and an intricate pulpit. The Sulpicians had an ever-growing congregation and no one in the soon-to-be Canadian colonies schooled in neo-Gothic architecture. So they commissioned James O’Donnell, a New York architect and Irish Protestant, to design what would be the largest church north of Mexico. Such was O’Donnell’s dedication to the project that he converted to Catholicism so he…
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Musée des Beaux-Arts
Montréal's Museum of Fine Arts, the oldest in the country and the city's largest, is housed in two buildings: the classical, marble-covered Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, and the modern annex across the street, the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion. The latter plays host to works by European and Canadian masters but also ancient artifacts from Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Far East; Islamic art and works from Africa and Oceania.
The Old Masters collection has paintings from the Middle Ages stretching through the Renaissance and classical eras up to contemporary works. Exhibitions change but some great painters (such as Rembrandt, Picasso or Matisse) and sculptors (Henry…
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Oratoire St-Joseph
The gigantic oratory honors St Joseph, Canada’s patron saint. The largest shrine ever built in honor of Jesus’ father, this Renaissance-style building was completed in 1960 and commands fine views of the northern slope of Mont-Royal. The oratory dome is visible from anywhere in this part of town. The oratory is also a tribute to the work of Brother André, the determined monk who first built a little chapel here in 1904. André was said to have healing powers and as word spread, a larger shrine was needed so the church began gathering funds to build one. Rows of discarded crutches and walking sticks in a votive chapel testify to this belief and the shrine is warmed by hundr…
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Musée Ferroviaire Canadien
The Canadian Railway Museum contains more than 150 historic vehicles, ranging from locomotives, steam engines, Old Montréal streetcars and passenger cars to snow plows. It’s widely acknowledged as one of North America’s most outstanding collections. Not particularly well known by Montrealers, this museum gets raves from those who make the trek, especially families, and many claim it’s the best museum in the Montréal area. The aerodynamic steam engine Dominion of Canada broke the world speed record in 1939 by clocking over 200km/h. A special sight is Montréal’s famous Golden Chariot, an open-air streetcar with tiers of ornate seats and gilt ironwork. Another goo…
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Musée d'Archéologie et d'Histoire Pointe-à-Callière
Built on the very spot where European settlers set up their first camp, the Pointe-à-Callière Museum of Archaeology & History provides a good overview of Montréal's beginnings. Visitors should start with Montreal, Tales of a City a 20-minute multimedia show that illustrates the centuries with the aid of film, hologram characters and real drizzle.
For the most part the museum is underground. Head to the archeological crypt in the basement where you can explore the remains of the city's ancient sewage and river system and the foundations of its first buildings and first public square. Interactive exhibits include video monitors that allow visitors to ask questions of the…
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TOHU
If you decide to take a jaunt to Montréal’s circus mecca in its working-class St-Michel district, be prepared to be wowed. This innovative complex TOHU (which comes from the French expression tohu-bohu, for hustle and bustle), includes an arena designed only with the circus arts in mind, Cirque du Soleil’s international headquarters and artists’ residence and the National Circus School. Moreover, it was built on the sight of North America’s second largest waste dump and the whole complex is now powered completely by methane gas from the landfill garbage beneath it.
You can visit the complex on your own (via guided audio tour), or on a guided 90-minute tour. TOHU …
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Parc Nature du Cap-St-Jacques
Arguably the most diverse of Montréal’s nature parks, Cap-St-Jacques has a huge beach, 27km of trails for hiking and skiing, a farm and even a summer camp. The maple and mixed deciduous forest in the interior is a great patch for a ramble, and in spring a horse-drawn carriage brings visitors to a sugar shack to watch the maple sap boil. On the north shore there’s the Eco-Farm, a working farm with two barns and horses, pigs and chickens, as well as a large greenhouse for viewing. Picnic tables abound and a restaurant serves the farm’s produce. The beach is a comfortably wide stretch of fine white sand, and the shallow water is wonderful for splashing with kids, but …
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Place-D’armes
This square is framed by some of the finest buildings in Old Montréal, including its oldest bank, first skyscraper and Basilique Notre-Dame. The square’s name references the bloody battles that took place here as religious settlers and First Nations tribes thrashed out control of what would become Montréal. At its center stands the Monument Maisonneuve, dedicated to city founder Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve. The red sandstone building on the east side of the square is the New York Life Insurance Building, Montréal’s first skyscraper (1888). It’s said to be built with the blocks used for ballast on ships bringing goods to Montréal. Next door, the Aldred…
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Rue St-Jacques
Known as the Wall Street of Canada into the 1930s, Rue St-Jacques was lined with the head offices of insurance companies and banks that proclaimed Montréal’s prosperity for the best part of a century. In those days it was known as St James Street.
Some great edifices are veritable temples to capitalism. The 1902 Guardian Insurance Building has helmeted women guarding the entrance while lions and mermaids watch over on the 2nd floor. The Molson Bank Building looks more like a royal residence; heads of founder William and his two sons grace the doorway.
The most glamorous of the lot is the Royal Bank Building, the city’s tallest building (22 stories) when it was built in…
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Maison St-Gabriel
This magnificent farmhouse in Pointe St-Charles is one of the finest examples of traditional Québec architecture. The house was bought in 1668 by Marguerite Bourgeoys to house a religious order. Young women, called the Filles du Roy, who were sent from Paris to Montréal to find husbands also stayed here. The 17th-century roof of the two-story building is of particular interest for its intricate beam work, one of the few of its kind in North America. The museum has an excellent collection of artifacts going back to the 17th and 18th centuries, with unusual items including sinks made from black stone and a sophisticated water-disposal system. It all gives visitors a wonderf…
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Château Dufresne
Brothers Oscar and Marius Dufresne commissioned this beautiful beaux-arts mansion, along the lines of the Versailles Palace in France, in 1916 and moved in with their families – Oscar on one side and Marius on the other. The interiors are stunning – tiled marble floors, coffered ceilings in Italian Renaissance style, stained-glass windows –and are open for the public to explore. Italian artist Guido Nincheri was in charge of interior decoration and painted many murals, including one of dainty nymphs in the Petit Salon. Marius’ side of the building is furnished in a more masculine style, with a smoking room fitted to look like a Turkish lounge with hookah pipes. The furnit…
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Château Ramezay
A home of French governors in the early 18th century, this mansion is one of the finest examples from the ancien régime. It was built for the 11th governor, Claude de Ramezay, and includes 15 interconnecting rooms with a ballroom of mirrors and mahogany galore. Ramezay went broke trying to maintain it. American generals used it as a headquarters during the revolution, and Benjamin Franklin stayed here attempting (and failing) to convince the Canadians to join the cause. In 1903 turrets were added to give the ‘château’ its fanciful French look. The building is a repository of Québec history with a collection of 20,000 objects, including valuable Canadian art and furniture.…
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En Prison
Leaving from Musée Québécois de Culture Populaire are the highly recommended 90-minute tours of the former Trois-Rivières prison, En Prison (Tel: 819-372-0406; www.enprison.com; 200 Rue Laviolette; adult/child/student $9/5/7; first tour 10am, last tour 4:45pm Jun-Aug).
When it closed in 1986 it was the oldest continually in-use jail in Canada. The tours are led by former convicts – perhaps the only job in Canada where a criminal record is a prerequisite. The tours cover not only the history of this particular prison but life in Canada’s prisons in general. It’s fascinating but at times rather disturbing stuff, and guides try to lighten things up a bit by throwing in a…
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Quai Alexandra & Around
This eastern-most pier in the port is home to the Iberville Passenger Terminal, the dock for cruise ships that ply the St Lawrence River as far as the Magdalen Islands out in the Gulf of St Lawrence.
Nearby the Parc des Écluses (Park of Locks) holds exhibitions of landscape architecture, shows and concerts. A bicycle path starts here and runs south-east along the pretty Canal de Lachine.
The abandoned 17-story-tall concrete silo on the south side of the locks is the last big relic of Montréal’s heyday as a grain port. On the promenade just west of Café des Éclusiers is the Silo Phone, a set of speakers and microphones hooked up to the grain silo across the locks. Sa…
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Parc du Mont Royal
Montréalers are proud of their 'mountain,' Mount Royal Park, the work of New York Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted. It's a sprawling, leafy playground that's perfect for cycling, jogging, horseback riding, picnicking and, in winter, cross-country skiing and tobogganing.
In fine weather, enjoy panoramic views from the Kondiaronk lookout near Chalet du Mont Royal, a grand old white villa that hosts big-band concerts in summer; or from the Observatoire de l'Est, a favourite rendezvous spot for lovebirds. It takes about 30 minutes to walk between the two. En route you'll spot the landmark 40m-high Cross of Montréal, which is illuminated at night. It's there to com…
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Quai Jacques-Cartier
This pier is the anchor of the Old Port area, home to restaurants, an open-air stage and a handicraft center. Every year the port stages a number of temporary exhibits, shows and events.
Tours of the port area also depart from here, and a ferry goes to Parc Jean-Drapeau. The ferry can also stop at Parc de la Cité-du-Havre, where there’s a restaurant and picnic tables.
Just east of Quai Jacques-Cartier is the Parc du Bassin Bonsecours, a grassy expanse enclosed by a waterway and criss-crossed with footbridges. In summer you can rent paddleboats ($6.50 per half-hour) or remote-control model sailboats; in winter the ice-skaters take over.
There’s a café at the Pavilion…
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Cosmodôme
You (or your kids) can experience the thrill of space flight in this interactive museum of space and new technologies. Exhibits focus on the solar system, satellite communications, teledetection and space travel, and there are mock-ups of rockets, the space shuttle Endeavor and planets. A multimedia show, Reach for the Stars, simulates space travel with special effects on a 360-degree screen. The center also runs space camps for one to five days for kids aged nine and up in a sort of mini-NASA training. The center is a 25-minute drive north of downtown Montréal. It’s a bit of a push by public transportation, but you can take the metro to Henri-Bourassa station and then bu…
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Église St Michel
This Byzantine-style church dominates the corner of Rue St-Urbain and Rue St-Viateur. Its dome and soaring turret make it one of the more unique examples of church architecture in Montréal. Completed in 1915, St Michel served a mostly Irish community up through the 1960s (when it was known as ‘St Mike’s’ and was the largest English-speaking parish in Montréal). Intriguing elements include the massive dome with a depiction of St Michael vanquishing the seven-headed serpent (representing the seven deadly sins), figures of downward-descending angels (representing the fallen angels cast into hell) painted on the pendentives, and the shamrocks hidden in the design elements. To…
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