Top 26 Montreal Attractions

Mon­tre­al, locat­ed at the con­flu­ence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, is the sec­ond largest city in Cana­da. This is the cul­tur­al cen­ter of the province of Que­bec, famous for its pres­ti­gious uni­ver­si­ties, muse­ums and fes­ti­vals.

Who travels to Montreal and why

Mon­tre­al, found­ed by French colonists in the mid­dle of the 17th cen­tu­ry, is a bustling and beau­ti­ful city where old and mod­ern build­ings suc­cess­ful­ly coex­ist. Mil­lions of tourists come here to stroll through the streets of Old Mon­tre­al, see the Ora­to­ry of St. Joseph, Jacques Carti­er Square, Notre Dame Cathe­dral of Mon­tre­al.

City muse­ums occu­py a lead­ing posi­tion in Cana­da and enjoy well-deserved pop­u­lar­i­ty. The exhi­bi­tions fea­ture archae­o­log­i­cal exhibits, works of art, objects of reli­gious wor­ship, col­lec­tions of coins, ear­ly print­ed books, and weapons.

Vibrant cul­tur­al life attracts tourists from dif­fer­ent coun­tries to Mon­tre­al:

• At the end of August, an inter­na­tion­al film fes­ti­val starts here, high­light­ing new films. On the agen­da are view­ing inno­v­a­tive works, dis­cus­sion of films, meet­ings with actors, pro­duc­ers, direc­tors.
• In the last days of July, fans of jazz music come to the city. For ten whole days, per­for­mances by famous musi­cians take place on the main stages. The hol­i­day, accom­pa­nied by mass fes­tiv­i­ties and fire­works, gath­ers thou­sands of jazz fans.

In the warm sea­son, Mon­tre­al offers var­i­ous recre­ation­al options for active peo­ple. There are well-main­tained beach­es, boat rental, sports clubs. Trav­el­ers go kayak­ing, fish­ing, boat­ing, hik­ing or horse­back rid­ing. The parks are equipped with rope towns and cable cars on the tops of trees for extreme climb­ing.

A rich cul­tur­al pro­gram awaits chil­dren and adults. Tourists have fun on play­grounds, vis­it excur­sions, water park. The cen­ter has attrac­tions aimed at kids and school­child­ren.

Interesting places

Old Montreal

The his­toric quar­ter in the dis­trict of Ville-Marie is locat­ed with­in the old defen­sive for­ti­fi­ca­tions. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, all the for­ti­fi­ca­tion tow­ers were destroyed in the 19th cen­tu­ry dur­ing the recon­struc­tion of Mon­tre­al. Most of the oth­er archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments were saved.

Beau­ti­ful squares, cathe­drals, man­sions of noble peo­ple have been pre­served in the Old Town. Walk­ing here, you can see the bank build­ing, the city hall, the sem­i­nary of St. Sulpice, inter­est­ing muse­ums.

Avenue Bernard

A bustling street in the cen­ter of Mon­tre­al is a great place for walk­ing and shop­ping. Branch­ing trees are plant­ed along the wide pave­ment. There are bench­es in the shade. Cafes, chi­na shops, fash­ion bou­tiques, gro­cery stores are open in the hous­es.

Small restau­rants serve excel­lent mus­sels at afford­able prices, deli­cious buns, aro­mat­ic cof­fee. The avenue allows you to see the life of ordi­nary Cana­di­ans and feel the atmos­phere of Mon­tre­al.

Le Village

Ville-Marie has pic­turesque streets called Mon­tre­al Vil­lage. Pre­vi­ous­ly, they were unre­mark­able, but in the 1990s, the city author­i­ties sup­port­ed the local gay com­mu­ni­ty, turn­ing Les Vil­lages into an exquis­ite tourist des­ti­na­tion.

Today’s vil­lage is famous for its restau­rants, clubs, bars, gay shops. Every sum­mer, its main street turns into a pedes­tri­an alley, dec­o­rat­ed with pink bal­loons stretched over­head, flags and paper lanterns.

Place d’Armes

The main square in the Old Town is sur­round­ed by beau­ti­ful palaces and admin­is­tra­tive build­ings. There is a small park with­in it.

In the mid­dle stands a mon­u­ment to Paul de Chaum­e­dy-Maison­neuve. The founder of Mon­tre­al, rais­ing the flag high with his right hand, is set on a high pedestal. Along the perime­ter of the square there are bench­es and antique lanterns. In sum­mer, small cof­fee shops and sou­venir shops are open in the open air.

Place Jacques Cartier

The square, named after the French nav­i­ga­tor Jacques Carti­er, can be found near the city hall. The square pedes­tri­an zone, paved with stone slabs, is a favorite place for tourists and locals to walk.

In the warm sea­son, music sounds here, artists, car­toon­ists, musi­cians gath­er, cafes and flower tents work. The main archi­tec­tur­al com­po­si­tion is the col­umn ded­i­cat­ed to the British Admi­ral Nel­son, installed on the square in 1809.

Old Seminary of Saint-Sulpice

The Sem­i­nary of 1688 reads as the old­est build­ing in Mon­tre­al. This is a clas­sic Renais­sance palace, dec­o­rat­ed with wide arch­es, high tow­ers, and stuc­co. On the facade there is a clock cre­at­ed by the watch­mak­er Dau­to.

The archives of the Sem­i­nary of Saint-Sulpice store rare books, man­u­scripts, icono­graph­ic doc­u­ments, and maps. An orchard with lawns, alleys and stat­ues has been plant­ed in the monas­tic court­yard.

Architecture

ramezai castle

Château Ramezai, erect­ed in 1705 as the res­i­dence of the gov­er­nor, was sold after the death of the own­er of the East India Com­pa­ny. Over the years, there were a court, office space, mil­i­tary head­quar­ters, and a sec­ondary school.

At the end of the last cen­tu­ry, the city admin­is­tra­tion acquired the man­sion and equipped it with a muse­um to store the archae­o­log­i­cal and numis­mat­ic col­lec­tions of the Mon­tre­al His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety. In the court­yard there is a French gar­den with a dec­o­ra­tive park, a veg­etable gar­den, and fruit trees. Spices and med­i­c­i­nal herbs are plant­ed near the cas­tle walls.

town hall

The neo-Renais­sance town hall was erect­ed in 1878. The majes­tic build­ing was bad­ly dam­aged by fire at the begin­ning of the last cen­tu­ry. After the restora­tion, a stone floor appeared, and the appear­ance of the roof changed slight­ly.

Mon­tre­al City Hall is a Nation­al His­toric Site of Cana­da. The build­ing is occu­pied by the city admin­is­tra­tion. An exhi­bi­tion hall is equipped on the ground floor, where you can find out infor­ma­tion about the devel­op­ment of Mon­tre­al from the begin­ning of the last cen­tu­ry to the present day.

Bank of Montreal

The neo­clas­si­cal man­sion, built in 1847 by archi­tect John Wells, looks like the Roman Pan­theon. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with a Corinthi­an colon­nade and a tri­an­gu­lar ped­i­ment. In the cen­ter of the ped­i­ment is a cir­cle sym­bol­iz­ing the world of finance.

The inte­ri­ors are dec­o­rat­ed with wall paint­ings, gild­ed mold­ings, and mar­ble stat­ues. The finan­cial insti­tu­tion has a muse­um that tells about the his­to­ry of the cre­ation of the nation­al bank.

temples

Notre Dame Basilica

The mon­u­men­tal Neo-Goth­ic basil­i­ca appeared on the site of an old dilap­i­dat­ed church in the 19th cen­tu­ry. Its facade is dec­o­rat­ed with lancet win­dows, arch­es and sculp­tures. Two sev­en­ty-meter bell tow­ers are attached to it. The inte­ri­or attracts with bright wall paint­ings, gild­ed stat­ues, wood­en fig­ures of saints, and mas­sive lamps.

Oratory of Saint Joseph

On Mont-Roy­al ris­es the ora­to­ry of St. Joseph. The gran­ite tem­ple in the style of the Ital­ian Renais­sance has a wide dome with a cross. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with Corinthi­an columns. The height of the build­ing is 129 meters, so it is clear­ly vis­i­ble from dif­fer­ent parts of the city. A stone stair­case leads to the main entrance.

The ora­to­ry is reg­u­lar­ly vis­it­ed by pil­grims. It is believed that prayer in the tem­ple gives heal­ing to the dis­abled. The truth of mir­a­cles was con­firmed by Pope John Paul II in 1982.

Cathedral of Marie-Reine-du-Mont

The third largest church in Que­bec is locat­ed next to Mon­tre­al Cen­tral Sta­tion. The build­ing, erect­ed at the direc­tion of Bish­op Ignace Bour­get, replaced the basil­i­ca of St. Jean, which burned down in 1852. The exte­ri­or of the tem­ple resem­bles St. Peter’s Basil­i­ca in Rome.

The arch­es are paint­ed with paint­ings depict­ing his­tor­i­cal events in the days of the found­ing of Mon­tre­al. Sculp­tures of saints lined up along the walls. In the apse there is a stat­ue of the Blessed Vir­gin Mary. The west­ern and east­ern parts of the cathe­dral are dec­o­rat­ed with texts from Scrip­ture inscribed in gold let­ters.

Cathedral Church of Christ

The 19th-cen­tu­ry neo-Goth­ic cathe­dral is mod­eled after ancient Eng­lish church­es and fea­tures a large inter­sect­ing tow­er with a light alu­minum spire.

The height of the tem­ple is 70 meters. Three organs are installed inside. Once a week there are con­certs of clas­si­cal and reli­gious music. The Cathe­dral is the reg­i­men­tal church of the Grenadier Guards. The reg­i­men­tal ban­ner and oth­er regalia are kept in a place of hon­or in it.

Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours

The chapel on the rue Saint-Paul appeared in 1655 at the direc­tion of Mar­garet Bourgeis. The old­est church in the city was rebuilt sev­er­al times and changed its appear­ance. Now the rooms are fin­ished with white mar­ble with gold­en inserts, the shelves are paint­ed with fres­coes.

In front of the entrance above the gate ris­es the fig­ure of the Vir­gin Mary with the baby Jesus. An ex-voto ship is sus­pend­ed from the ceil­ing of the tem­ple. It sym­bol­izes the grat­i­tude of sailors for a suc­cess­ful voy­age. Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Sec­ours is part of the Mar­garet Bourgeis Muse­um.

Museums

Pointe-a-Callier Museum

The his­tor­i­cal muse­um in old Mon­tre­al intro­duces a col­lec­tion of indige­nous arti­facts found dur­ing exca­va­tions in the vicin­i­ty of the city. The exhi­bi­tions illus­trate how Indi­ans inter­act­ed with French and British colonists and shed light on major peri­ods in Mon­tre­al’s his­to­ry.

The Pointe-a-Cal­li­er Muse­um is engaged in edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties, holds cul­tur­al events, meet­ings with his­to­ri­ans. In the lob­by there are tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions con­cern­ing inter­na­tion­al arche­ol­o­gy, mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, and folk art.

Museum of Fine Arts

The largest art muse­um in Que­bec holds 33,000 items. The col­lec­tion includes paint­ings by old mas­ters, con­tem­po­rary can­vas­es by Cana­di­an and for­eign artists, engrav­ings, sculp­tures, rare fab­rics, Japan­ese and Eng­lish porce­lain.

Among the exhibits of the muse­um exhi­bi­tion are the mas­ter­pieces of El Gre­co, Andrea Man­teg­na, Nico­las Poussin, Mau­rice Cullen, James Ensor, Tit­ian.

Modern Art Museum

Muse­um in down­town Mon­tre­al, ded­i­cat­ed to con­tem­po­rary art, opened in 1964. 8 spa­cious halls are equipped with per­ma­nent and tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions show­ing paint­ings, sculp­tures, pho­tographs, instal­la­tions.

Dur­ing the tour, you can get acquaint­ed with the work of Louise Bour­geois, Bill Vio­la, James Tur­rell, Vic­tor Vasare­ly. The cen­tral place in the muse­um is occu­pied by the works of Paul-Emile Bor­d­ua.

Redpath Museum

McGill Uni­ver­si­ty has opened its doors to one of Canada’s old­est nat­ur­al sci­ence muse­ums. The expo­si­tions, housed in a Vic­to­ri­an man­sion, intro­duce you to the flo­ra and fau­na of the region, tell about ancient civ­i­liza­tions and extinct ani­mals.

• The pale­on­to­log­i­cal col­lec­tion con­tains fos­sil remains of dinosaurs and prim­i­tive peo­ple.
• In the depart­ment of min­er­al­o­gy — pieces of mete­orites, crys­tals and stones.
• In the halls of eth­nol­o­gy there are ancient Egypt­ian arti­facts (paint­ed sar­copha­gi, mum­mies, cuneiform tablets, jew­el­ry, masks).

Science Center

The Sci­ence Muse­um is locat­ed in the old port of Mon­tre­al. The mod­ern glass and con­crete build­ing hous­es inter­ac­tive exhi­bi­tions about tech­nol­o­gy and sci­ence. On the tour, chil­dren and adults will learn about ecol­o­gy, the forces of nature, advanced tech­no­log­i­cal achieve­ments of mankind.

The sci­en­tif­ic cen­ter sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly hosts mas­ter class­es that teach the basics of physics and chem­istry. Famous sci­en­tists often give lec­tures in the Infor­ma­tion Stu­dio.

Exhibition of Barbie dolls

The exhi­bi­tion from the lead­ing fash­ion design­ers guar­an­tees a sea of ​​pos­i­tive emo­tions for the beau­ti­ful half of human­i­ty. The expo­si­tion on Peel Street presents exclu­sive dolls dressed in clothes designed by Dior, Armani, Car­oli­na Her­rera, Chris­t­ian Louboutin, Oscar De La Renta. Hun­dreds of col­lectible Bar­bi­es well illus­trate the his­to­ry of fash­ion and the devel­op­ment of this indus­try.

Parks and entertainment

Park Lafontaine

Near Mont-Roy­al, there is a park named after the Cana­di­an politi­cian Louis-Hip­poly­te La Fontaine. An exten­sive area plant­ed with decid­u­ous trees is an ide­al place for hik­ing. There are two arti­fi­cial lakes con­nect­ed by a water­fall, cozy bench­es, play­grounds, sports equip­ment, cafes.

On the ter­ri­to­ry there are mon­u­ments to Lafontaine, Charles de Gaulle, Felix Leclerc, an amphithe­ater for 4 thou­sand seats, gaze­bos.

Botanical Garden

The botan­i­cal gar­den, found­ed in 1931 under the patron­age of the City Hall, is con­sid­ered a his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment of Cana­da. On an area of ​​75 hectares there is a Japan­ese and Chi­nese gar­den, a rose gar­den, an arbore­tum, an Eng­lish park, flower beds with orchids, rhodo­den­drons, med­i­c­i­nal herbs.

Cac­ti, suc­cu­lents, poi­so­nous plants from dif­fer­ent coun­tries grow in indoor green­hous­es. The Chi­nese gar­den is equipped with a man-made pond with ducks and tur­tles, a tea house, and a pavil­ion for relax­ation.

Olympic Stadium

For the 1976 Olympic Games in Mon­tre­al, a sta­di­um was built, which has become an impor­tant land­mark of the city. The huge are­na resem­bles a ball with a round­ed roof.

The archi­tec­tur­al com­plex includes an inclined tow­er 175 meters high, from which a mag­nif­i­cent panora­ma of Mon­tre­al comes off. The site of the Olympic Sta­di­um is used for music con­certs, foot­ball match­es, hol­i­days.

Amusement Park La Rond

This park start­ed oper­at­ing in the mid­dle of the last cen­tu­ry and quick­ly became pop­u­lar. In the green zone there are mod­ern rides that take your breath away. It offers vaca­tion­ers roller coast­ers, a Fer­ris wheel, ver­ti­cal water­falls, carousels for kids. The park has a cafe, tents with ice cream and soft drinks.

Super Aqua Club

25 km from Mon­tre­al, in the town of Pointe-Calume, a water park was built for active fam­i­ly hol­i­days. It is a huge swim­ming pool with water attrac­tions.

Vis­i­tors go down the slides, canoe­ing, air mat­tress­es, go swim­ming. For the lit­tle ones, there is a spe­cial area with a shal­low pool, a foun­tain, and water guns. Near the water there is a park with a play­ground, a cafe­te­ria, a restau­rant.

Planetarium

The futur­is­tic steel build­ing of the plan­e­tar­i­um is locat­ed near the Olympic Sta­di­um. In each of the two build­ings, inter­ac­tive exhi­bi­tions and inter­est­ing per­for­mances are reg­u­lar­ly held. The pro­gram includes enter­tain­ing lec­tures on the solar sys­tem, black holes, the galaxy, and mete­orites.

Dur­ing the ses­sion, images of the star­ry sky, the sun, and the moon are dis­played on mul­ti­me­dia screens. In the evenings, a beam of light with ani­ma­tions and 3D pic­tures is pro­ject­ed onto one of the out­er walls of the plan­e­tar­i­um to lure adults and chil­dren on a tour.