Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of Archaeology and History

A Museum Built Directly Over The Site Where Montreal Was Founded In 1642, Preserving The Excavated Remains In Situ Beneath The Building, Including The First Collector Sewer In North America · Montreal, Quebec

Most history museums put the past in cases. POINTE-A-CALLIERE WAS BUILT ON TOP OF IT: the museum stands directly over the spot where Ville-Marie, which became Montreal, was founded in 1642, and the excavated remains were left where they were found and roofed over. You go DOWN from the entrance into the actual ground - foundations, a Catholic cemetery, layers of the fortified town, and a stone-vaulted channel that is THE FIRST COLLECTOR SEWER IN NORTH AMERICA, built in the 1830s over the little river that ran through the settlement. You walk along the inside of it. Above ground there is a handsome 1992 building on the footprint of the old Royal Insurance building, and the museum has since absorbed several neighbouring historic structures. It is the one place in Montreal that explains why the city is where it is.

350 place Royale, Old Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

OPEN MOST OF THE WEEK WITH ONE CLOSED DAY - typically MONDAY outside the summer season, with daily opening in summer. CONFIRM before travelling, because the pattern changes with the season. ADULT ADMISSION HAS RUN ROUGHLY CAD 22-28 with children, students and seniors cheaper and family rates available; MAJOR TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS ARE USUALLY INCLUDED rather than charged separately, which is not the norm in this city. THE UNDERGROUND CIRCUIT IS THE MUSEUM and it involves stairs and changes of level - see the accessibility notes, because the lift route does not reach everything. Allow longer than you think: people plan an hour and the underground route takes most of two. Place-d'Armes metro is a short walk, and the museum sits at the edge of Old Montreal beside the Old Port.

Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of Archaeology and History on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos