Top 20 Quebec Attractions

Que­bec is a unique North Amer­i­can city that has com­plete­ly pre­served the French fla­vor. Here, Euro­pean roots are felt every­where: in the cul­ture, his­to­ry and dai­ly life of the city.

Who comes to Quebec and why

First of all, Que­bec is famous for its ancient archi­tec­ture of the 17th-18th cen­turies. You should def­i­nite­ly take a look at the Old Town — the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter, where there are many dif­fer­ent sights and city parks. Church­es deserve spe­cial atten­tion: the Cathe­dral of Notre-Dame-de-Que­bec, the Basil­i­ca of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Vic­toire. These are Catholic church­es, which were built in the 17th cen­tu­ry and have been well pre­served to this day.

You can walk along the Roy­al Square, which looks like an island of Europe in the heart of Amer­i­ca. To learn more about the city and the coun­try, you can vis­it the Muse­um of Civ­i­liza­tion, and if the soul is drawn to beau­ty, then look into the Muse­um of Fine Arts.

Lovers of the beau­ties of nature will also have some­thing to do in Que­bec. One of the main attrac­tions of the city is the Que­bec Aquar­i­um, which is home to var­i­ous rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the marine fau­na — from fish to birds and mam­mals.

It will be quite inter­est­ing to vis­it the fields of Abra­ham, which served as a bat­tle­field for the troops of Eng­land and France, and in the Jacques-Carti­er Nation­al Park you can have a great time fish­ing and boat­ing. Anoth­er gem of Que­bec is the Mont­maren­cy Falls, whose height sur­pass­es even Nia­gara.

Cultural attractions and museums

Old city

The Old Town is the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter of Que­bec and con­sists of two parts — the Upper and Low­er Towns. Most of the build­ings were built in the 19th cen­tu­ry, although some of them date back to the 17th-18th cen­turies. Here you will see defen­sive for­ti­fi­ca­tions with stun­ning views, cozy city parks, many restau­rants and shops.

You can walk around the Old Town on foot, see­ing all the sights, or you can take a fas­ci­nat­ing ride on a horse-drawn car­riage.

Basilica of Sainte Anne de Beaupré

The Catholic Church, named and con­se­crat­ed in hon­or of Saint Anne, is locat­ed near Que­bec. In the 17th cen­tu­ry, a chapel was built on this site, in which the stat­ue of the saint was kept, and a tem­ple, where pil­grims from all over the world sought to get.

There­fore, they decid­ed to expand the church and build the first basil­i­ca, but at the begin­ning of the last cen­tu­ry it was destroyed due to a fire.

The build­ing we see today was built less than 100 years ago. The inte­ri­or of the basil­i­ca is dec­o­rat­ed with stained-glass win­dows, paint­ings and mosaics, as well as sculp­tures made of wood and stone.

National Museum of Fine Arts

The Nation­al Muse­um, found­ed in 1933, is locat­ed in the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter and con­sists of three pavil­ions, one of which housed a prison in the last cen­tu­ry. Some prison premis­es were left unchanged, includ­ing them in the expo­si­tion.

The muse­um’s col­lec­tion includes about 38,000 art objects: paint­ings, sculp­tures, pho­tographs and sam­ples of applied art. In addi­tion to the per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion, the muse­um hosts tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions, con­fer­ences, lec­tures and edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams for school­child­ren.

Royal Square

On the Roy­al Place of Que­bec, you get the feel­ing that you are on a Euro­pean island in the mid­dle of the North Amer­i­can con­ti­nent.

Nar­row stone streets diverge in all direc­tions from the square paved with paving stones, and cozy restau­rants are open on the first floors of the sur­round­ing old man­sions. There are many inter­est­ing places and attrac­tions on the Roy­al Square, so there are many tourists here at any time of the day.

Cathedral of Notre Dame de Quebec

This Roman Catholic Cathe­dral is one of the old­est church­es in Cana­da. Its his­to­ry began in the 17th cen­tu­ry, when a parish church was built, which lat­er became the cathe­dral of the Dio­cese of Que­bec.

The build­ing changed its appear­ance sev­er­al times, but its final appear­ance was formed in the 19th cen­tu­ry — the facade was recon­struct­ed in the image of the Parisian church of Saint Genevieve. With­in the walls of the cathe­dral, four bish­ops of Que­bec and the gov­er­nors of New France were buried.

Museum of Civilization

The muse­um opened its doors to vis­i­tors in 1988. Its col­lec­tion includes more than 250 thou­sand var­i­ous his­tor­i­cal and ethno­graph­ic arti­facts. The expo­si­tion tells the his­to­ry of the city and the province, start­ing from ancient times. Here you can also learn about the fea­tures of life and cul­ture of the indige­nous pop­u­la­tion of Cana­da.

The Muse­um of Civ­i­liza­tion hosts tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions, sem­i­nars and cul­tur­al events. On its ter­ri­to­ry there are cafes, sou­venir shops and a library.

Morrin Center

The build­ing of the for­mer city prison of Que­bec (and even ear­li­er — an edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion) now hous­es a cul­tur­al cen­ter. It has its own lab­o­ra­to­ry and sci­en­tif­ic library. Mor­rin has a book col­lec­tion that is the most valu­able and old­est in all of Cana­da.

Church of Notre-Dame-de-Victoire

A small Roman Catholic church, built of stone, is locat­ed in the Low­er City on the Roy­al Square. The church was built in the 17th cen­tu­ry on the site of the for­mer res­i­dence of the founder of Que­bec, hydro­g­ra­ph­er and trav­el­er Samuel de Cham­plain.

In the XVIII cen­tu­ry the tem­ple was destroyed. Grad­u­al­ly, its recon­struc­tion was car­ried out, but the build­ing was com­plete­ly restored only in the 19th cen­tu­ry. The church is now a Nation­al His­toric Site of Cana­da.

Nature and parks

Jacques Cartier National Park

The park, named after the nav­i­ga­tor and dis­cov­er­er J. Carti­er, is locat­ed in the vicin­i­ty of Que­bec, and not in the city itself. On the ter­ri­to­ry there are 500-meter steep cliffs, a stormy riv­er and deep gorges.

Here you can fish and go canoe­ing or kayak­ing, and spend the night at the camp­site. The park has many hik­ing trails, ski­ing and cycling trails, so every­one can have a great time.

Quebec Aquarium

In the sub­urbs of Que­bec, the Que­bec Aquar­i­um is locat­ed, the area of ​​​​which is approx­i­mate­ly 16 hectares. It opened in 1959 and has received thou­sands of vis­i­tors ever since. More than 10,000 marine inhab­i­tants live in the Aquar­i­um: mol­lusks, rep­tiles, fish, amphib­ians, sea birds and mam­mals.

The high­light of the Que­bec Aquar­i­um is the High Ocean Gallery. This is an under­wa­ter tun­nel where tourists can observe the life of marine life from a diver’s posi­tion.

Fields of Abraham

The his­tor­i­cal place where in 1759 Eng­lish and French sol­diers met in bat­tle. As a result of this bat­tle, Que­bec became part of Great Britain. Today, there is Bat­tle Park on the Abra­ham Fields, where a small muse­um oper­ates — its expo­si­tion tells about the war for Que­bec. Also in the park you can ride a bike or cross-coun­try ski, walk or have a pic­nic with a bar­be­cue.

On June 24, an annu­al hol­i­day is held here — the nation­al cel­e­bra­tion of the city, and vis­it­ing artists also give con­certs in the park.

Montmarency waterfall

The pic­turesque water­fall was dis­cov­ered in the 16th cen­tu­ry and got its name in hon­or of the Viceroy of New France — Admi­ral A. de Mont­maren­cy. Jets of water fall down from a height of 84 meters, which is 30 meters more than the world-famous Nia­gara.

The ter­ri­to­ry of the water­fall is enno­bled and equipped with paths lead­ing to the upper lev­el. There is a bridge from which the panora­ma is breath­tak­ing. The ascent to the top is quite dif­fi­cult, so you should be patient, drink water and com­fort­able shoes.

Orleans Island

The island with an area of ​​120 km² is locat­ed in the vicin­i­ty of Que­bec. It was dis­cov­ered in the 16th cen­tu­ry by the trav­el­er J. Carti­er. In the sec­ond half of the 17th cen­tu­ry, French set­tlers began to move here, who found­ed a small vil­lage. Today, about 1,000 peo­ple live here who are engaged in agri­cul­ture.

You can vis­it Orleans Island dur­ing an orga­nized excur­sion dur­ing which you will be treat­ed to tra­di­tion­al cui­sine, ripe berries and fresh bread.

Notable buildings

Castle Frontenac

The offi­cial name of the cas­tle is Fair­mont Le Château Fron­tenac. This is a chic grand hotel locat­ed in the his­toric cen­ter of Que­bec. The hotel build­ing was erect­ed in the late XIX — ear­ly XX cen­turies by order of the Cana­di­an Pacif­ic Rail­way.

The name of the cas­tle was in hon­or of the French gov­er­nor and com­man­der. The Grand Hotel host­ed the Que­bec Con­fer­ences, as well as the film­ing of Alfred Hitch­cock films. Fron­tenac itself is a Cana­di­an Nation­al His­toric Land­mark.

Quebec Parliament

The four-sto­ry build­ing on the Par­lia­ment Hill of Que­bec hosts meet­ings of the Nation­al Assem­bly of the city and the Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al. In the cen­tral part of the struc­ture ris­es a 52-meter tow­er topped with a clock. The facade of the Par­lia­ment is dec­o­rat­ed with sculp­tur­al com­po­si­tions depict­ing the his­to­ry of Que­bec “in faces”.

Here you can meet the founder of the city Samuel de Cham­plain, Louis de Fron­tenac, James Bruce and oth­ers. The inte­ri­ors of the build­ing amaze with splen­dor — the dec­o­ra­tion is dom­i­nat­ed by mar­ble, wood and gild­ing.

Fortress walls

The date of the con­struc­tion of the fortress wall is the mid­dle of the 18th cen­tu­ry. This is the only struc­ture of this type that has sur­vived to this day in North Amer­i­ca. The remains of the fortress walls, rem­i­nis­cent of the bat­tles between the troops of Eng­land and France, are includ­ed in the UNESCO pro­tec­tion list.

The con­struc­tion gives the city an unusu­al look, and if you climb to the top, you can enjoy beau­ti­ful views of the city and its sur­round­ings.

old port

Que­bec has the old­est port in Cana­da, built in the 19th cen­tu­ry. At that time, it was one of the most impor­tant ports in the world and played a big role in the devel­op­ment of not only the city, but the coun­try as a whole.

Today, cruise ships arrive in the Old Port, bring­ing thou­sands of tourists. Excur­sions are con­duct­ed here, and from the board of the lin­er a gor­geous view of the city, includ­ing the Fron­tenac cas­tle, opens up.

Quebec fortress

At Cape Dia­man, there are ancient star-shaped for­ti­fi­ca­tions rec­og­nized as an archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment of Cana­da. The Que­bec fortress was built in the 17th cen­tu­ry on the ini­tia­tive of the gov­er­nor of New France, Louis de Fron­tenac. It lat­er housed the Roy­al Artillery and the 22nd Reg­i­ment of the Cana­di­an Forces. Today, the fortress is an active mil­i­tary base, and also serves as the offi­cial res­i­dence for the Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al of the coun­try.

ice hotel

There is an unusu­al hotel in Que­bec, the high­light of which is that it is built entire­ly of ice. This is a real hotel with rooms, a spa com­plex and a bar. So that the guests do not freeze, they are offered sleep­ing bags, spe­cial mat­tress­es and pil­lows.

Nat­u­ral­ly, with the onset of heat, the hotel grad­u­al­ly melts, but next win­ter it is built again. The ice build­ing is con­stant­ly placed in dif­fer­ent places, but it will not be dif­fi­cult to find it — this place is very pop­u­lar.

Train Station

Que­bec Sta­tion is an archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment built in the French style. The build­ing, made of red brick, is dec­o­rat­ed with airy stained-glass win­dows, and two tow­ers on the sides and a large clock above the entrance make the sta­tion look like an old Euro­pean cas­tle.

The build­ing is not designed for a large num­ber of pas­sen­gers, so few trains run here. Nev­er­the­less, the rail­way sta­tion is pop­u­lar — thanks to its appear­ance.