Montreal Attractions

Atwater Market

Atwater Market (French: marché Atwater) is a farmers' market located in the Saint-Henri area of the borough Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It opened in 1933. The interior market is home to many butchers and the Première Moisson Bakery and restaurant. The outside market has many farmers stalls which sell both local and imported produce, as well as two cheese stores, a wine store specialising in locally produced spirits and a fish store. Quality is usually very good, although bargains are quite rare.

Located in a notable Art Déco building, it is located on Atwater Street, near the Lachine Canal and the Lionel-Groulx Metro station, as well as Greene Avenue. A pedestrian bridge, which can also be used by bicycles, connects the market to Saint-Patrick Street and to a bicycle path in Pointe-Saint-Charles on the other side of the Lachine Canal. The presence of this bridge explains the popularity of this market with bike riders, who often stop there, and greatly contributes to the great summer ambiance of the area. The bike path travels from the Old Port of Montreal to the Lachine Marina and is owned and maintained by Parks Canada.
Bell Centre

The Bell Centre (French: Le Centre Bell), formerly known as the Molson Centre (French: le Centre Molson), is a sports and entertainment complex in Montreal, Quebec. It has been the home of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens hockey team since March 16, 1996, when they hosted the New York Rangers (a game which the Canadiens won 4–2). The team departed from the historic Montreal Forum after their last game on March 11 of the same year. Construction began on the site on June 22, 1993, 13 days after the Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings at the Forum for their 24th and most recent Stanley Cup. The name of the arena initially reflected Molson, Inc., a brewing company which was owner of the Canadiens at the time. Some members of Montreal sports media, namely Jack Todd, pushed for the nickname "The Keg" as fitting for the new arena but it was never widely adopted. Molson elected not to keep the naming rights when they sold the team and the name was officially changed on September 1, 2002, after Bell Canada acquired the naming rights.
Casino de Montréal

The Casino de Montréal is a casino located on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal. It is the largest casino in Canada, and among the top ten largest in the world.

The casino consists of three buildings. Two of these, the French Pavilion and the Quebec Pavilion, were built for Expo 67. The third building is an annex built by the casino. The main building has five floors. There are over 3200 slot machines and over 120 gaming tables in the casino. The casino also contains four restaurants, four bars, a cabaret, and meeting and banquet facilities. The casino is somewhat unconventional as there are windows in many places, and low ceilings.

The casino is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to patrons aged 18 and older. It has been a non-smoking casino since July 2003, and the former smoking lounges were closed in May 2006 with the passing of a new provincial law. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited in the playing areas.
Jean-Talon Market

Jean-Talon Market (French: Marché Jean-Talon) is a farmer's market in Montreal. Located in the Little Italy district, the market is bordered by Jean-Talon Street to the north, Mozart Ave. to the south, Casgrain Ave. to the west and Henri-Julien Ave. to the east. It contains two city-maintained streets both called Place du Marché du Nord. The market is located between the Jean-Talon and De Castelnau metro stations.
La Ronde (amusement park)

La Ronde is an amusement park in Montreal, owned and operated by Six Flags, and is the largest in the province of Quebec and the second largest in Canada after Canada's Wonderland, with about 2.5 million guests in 2006. The park is under a emphyteutic lease, a type of lease which stipulates the improvement of the property, from the City of Montreal and expires in 2065. It is also the only Six Flags operation in Canada.

It is a 146 acre (591,000 m²) park located on the eastern tip of Saint Helen's Island in Montreal, Canada. The park hosts L’International des Feux Loto-Québec, unofficially the most important international fireworks competition in the world.
Montreal Biodome

The Montreal Biodome (Biodôme de Montréal) is a facility located in Montreal that allows visitors to walk through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas. The building was originally constructed for the 1976 Olympic Games as a velodrome. It hosted both cycling and judo events. Renovations on the building began in 1989 and in 1992 the indoor nature exhibit was opened.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (French: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal) is a major museum in Montréal, Québec, Canada. It was founded in 1860, making it Canada's oldest art institution.

It is Montreal's largest museum and is amongst the most prominent in Canada. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a member of the International Group of Organizers of Large-scale Exhibitions, also known as the Bizot Group, a forum which allows the leaders of the largest museums in the world to exchange works and exhibitions.

The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street.
Mount Royal

Mount Royal (French: Mont Royal) is a mountain on the Island of Montreal, immediately north of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.

The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians. It gave its Latin name, Mons Regius, to the Monteregian chain.

The mountain consists of three peaks: Colline de la Croix (or Mont Royal proper) at 233 m (764 ft), Colline d'Outremont (or Mount Murray, in the borough of Outremont ) at 211 m (692 ft), and Westmount mount at 201 m (659 ft) elevation above mean sea level. At this height, it might be otherwise considered a hill, but it has always been called a mountain.
Old Montreal

Old Montreal (or Vieux-Montréal in French) is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France.

Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is usually thought of as being bounded to the west by McGill St., to the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, to the east by Berri St., and to the south by the Saint Lawrence River. Following recent amendments, the district has been slightly expanded to include rue des Soeurs Grises to the west, Saint Antoine St. to the north and the St-Hubert Street in the east. It also includes the Old Port of Montreal. Most of Old Montreal has been declared historic district in 1964 by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec.
Old Port Of Montreal

Stretching for over two kilometres along the St-Lawrence River in Old Montreal, the Old Port Of Montreal has been the social, economic and cultural soul of Montreal ever since early French fur traders used it as a trading post in 1611. It was here that the city and the port came to life more than 350 years ago.

The redevelopment of the city's Old Port took place in the early 90s, under the direction of architects Aurèle Cardinal and Peter Rose.

Today, the riverfront welcomes over seven million visitors per year. The historical Old Port offers Montrealers and visitors alike access to a wide variety of activities, including the Montréal Science Centre, with an IMAX Theatre, and the Montreal Clock Tower. It offers riverfront access for walking, cycling, roller-blading, quadricycle, pedalo and Segway rentals. It is also located at the eastern end of the Lachine Canal, which has itself been extensively refurbished as a popular destination for cycling, roller-blading and pleasure boating.

The Old Port of Montreal changed its name to The Quays of the Old Port of Montreal in 2005. Every 2 years the Cirque de Soleil launches a new show from the Jacques Cartier Quay.

Shipping has been moved further east to the present Port of Montreal site, leaving the riverside area of Old Port adjacent to Old Montreal as a recreational and historical area.
Olympic Stadium (Montreal)

The Olympic Stadium (French: Stade olympique) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It subsequently became the home of Montreal's professional baseball and Canadian football teams. Since 2004, when the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D.C., the stadium has no main tenant, and with a history of financial and structural problems, is largely seen as a white elephant. It currently serves as a 56,040-seat multipurpose facility for special events (e.g. concerts, trade shows) during non-winter months, and continues to serve as a 66,308-seat venue for late-season, playoff and Grey Cup games hosted by the Montreal Alouettes. La tour de Montréal, the tower incorporated into the base of the stadium, is the tallest inclined tower in the world at 175 metres, and is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. The stadium's nickname The Big O is a reference to both its name and to the doughnut-shape of the permanent component of the stadium's roof.
Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal)

Notre-Dame Basilica (French: Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal) is a basilica in the historic district of Old Montreal, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The church is located at 110 Notre-Dame Street West, at the corner of Saint Sulpice Street. It is located next to the Saint-Sulpice Seminary and faces the Place d'Armes square.

The church's Gothic Revival architecture is among the most dramatic in the world; its interior is grand and colourful, its ceiling is coloured deep blue and decorated with golden stars, and the rest of the sanctuary is a polychrome of blues, azures, reds, purples, silver, and gold. It is filled with hundreds of intricate wooden carvings and several religious statues. Unusual for a church, the stained glass windows along the walls of the sanctuary do not depict biblical scenes, but rather scenes from the religious history of Montreal. It also has a Casavant Frères pipe organ, which comprises four keyboards, 97 stops, almost 7000 individual pipes and a pedal board.
Quartier des Spectacles

Quartier des Spectacles is an entertainment district located in the eastern section of Downtown Montreal. The area is currently undergoing gentrification and urban renewal that will turn it into the centre for Montreal's cultural events and festivals.

With a total area of almost a square kilometre, its boundaries are City Councillors Street, Berri Street, Sherbrooke Street and René Lévesque Boulevard, encompassing all of the district known as Montreal's Latin Quarter.

The area will be home to 30 performance halls totalling almost 28,000 seats, including the Place des Arts cultural complex, as well as international festivals, art galleries and centres for the exhibition and broadcast of alternative culture. The Quartier des spectacles hosts nearly 8,500 jobs linked to cultural activities, from education and creation to production, exhibition and broadcasting.
Saint Joseph's Oratory

Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, (French: Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal), is a Roman Catholic basilica on the northern slope of Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

In 1904, Blessed André Bessette, CSC, began the construction of a small chapel on the side of the mountain near Notre Dame College. Soon the growing number of visitors made it too small. Even though it was enlarged, a larger church was needed and in 1917 one was completed - it is called the Crypt, and has a seating capacity of 1,000. In 1924, the construction of the basilica was inaugurated; it was finally completed in 1967. The Oratory's dome is the third-largest of its kind in the world after the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro and Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, and the church is the largest in Canada.
Saint Laurent Boulevard

Saint Lawrence Boulevard or boulevard Saint-Laurent (its official name, in French) is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north-south through the near-centre of city and is nicknamed The Main.

Today, Saint Lawrence is home to Little Italy (between Saint-Zotique and Jean-Talon streets), Mile End between Mount Royal and Van Horne Avenues, Montreal's Little Portugal, clustered around Duluth and Rachel Streets, a bar district (roughly between Sherbrooke and Duluth streets), a small red-light district and Montreal's Chinatown (between Viger Street and René Lévesque Boulevard).

Numerous art galleries and other cultural organizations make their home on the Main. including La Centrale/Powerhouse (Canada's oldest women's artist-run centre), Ethnik-art, The Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Festival International Nuits d'Afrique, the Montreal Fringe Festival, Image & Nation Festival, My Hero Gallery, the Society for Arts and Technology and Sensation Mode. Many well-known music venues can be found on the Main, including Casa del Popolo, Sala Rosa, Club Soda, Barfly, Jupiter Room, Main Hall, Club Lambi, The Academy Club and Divan Orange. The street is also home to the National Theatre School as well as the Ex-Centris cinema complex, adjacent to the offices of Softimage. Gastronomic highlights include Montreal's famous smoked meat deli Schwartz's as well as the Montreal Pool Room, serving Montreal hot dogs since 1912.
Underground City, Montreal

Montreal's Underground City (officially RÉSO or La Ville Souterraine in French) is the set of interconnected complexes (both above and below ground) in and around Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is also known as the indoor city (ville intérieure), and is the largest underground complex in the world.

The lower floors of the Eaton Centre between the McGill and Peel metro stations.Not all portions of the indoor city (ville intérieure) are underground. The connections are considered tunnels architecturally and technically, but have conditioned air and good lighting as any building's liveable space does. Many tunnels are large enough to have shops on both sides of the passage. With over 32 kilometres (20 mi) of tunnels spread over more than twelve square kilometres (5 sq mi), connected areas include shopping malls, apartment buildings, hotels, condominiums, banks, offices, museums, universities, seven metro stations, two commuter train stations, a regional bus terminal and the Bell Centre amphitheatre and arena. There are more than 120 exterior access points to the underground city. Each access point is an entry point to one of 60 residential or commercial complexes comprising 3.6 square kilometres (1.4 sq mi) of floor space, including 80% of all office space and 35% of all commercial space in downtown Montreal. In winter, some 500,000 people use the underground city every day. Because of its Underground City, Montreal is often referred to as "Two Cities in One."