Known for its rotating rooftop beacon that illuminates downtown at night, the 42-story Place Ville-Marie tower marked the beginning of Montréal’s Underground City five decades ago. Its cruciform shape was chosen to commemorate Maisonneuve’s planting of a great cross on Mont-Royal in 1642. Today it houses some 75 shops and restaurants, as well as 10,000 occupants.
Place Ville-Marie
Montréal
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.93 MILES
The charming, leafy expanse of Parc du Mont-Royal is charged for a wide range of outdoor activities. The wooded slopes and grassy meadows have stunning…
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal
0.56 MILES
Montréal’s Museum of Fine Arts is an accessible and beautifully updated oasis of art housed in architecturally striking buildings. A visit here is a must…
0.63 MILES
Montréal's famous landmark, Notre Dame Basilica, is a 19th-century Gothic Revival masterpiece with spectacular craftsmanship – a visually pleasing, if…
2.41 MILES
The stunning Oratoire St-Joseph church built on the flanks of Mont-Royal commands grand views of the the Côte-des-Neiges area and northwest Montréal. The…
3.98 MILES
Montréal’s Jardin Botanique is the third-largest botanical garden in the world, after London’s Kew Gardens and Berlin’s Botanischer Garten.
0.6 MILES
This open square is framed by some of the finest buildings in Old Montréal, including its oldest bank, first skyscraper and Basilique Notre-Dame. The…
Pointe-à-Callière Cité d'archéologie et d'histoire de Montréal
0.71 MILES
One of Montréal's most fascinating sites, this museum takes visitors on a historical journey through the centuries, beginning with the early days of…
0.99 MILES
Montréal's Old Port has morphed into a park and fun zone paralleling the mighty St Lawrence River for 2.5km and punctuated by four grand quais (quays)…
Nearby Montréal attractions
0.13 MILES
Lively Rue Ste-Catherine Ouest is one endless orgy of shops, restaurants, bars and cafes on the hyperactive stretch between Rue Crescent and Rue St-Urbain…
2. Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde
0.17 MILES
The Cathedral of Mary Queen of the World is a smaller but still magnificent version of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The architects scaled it down to a…
0.17 MILES
Montréal’s first Anglican bishop had this cathedral built (modeled on a church in Salisbury, England) and it was completed in 1859. The interior is sober…
0.18 MILES
This leafy expanse in the heart of downtown was known until 1988 as Dominion Sq, a reminder of Canada’s founding in 1867. A Catholic cemetery was here…
0.22 MILES
This park immediately southeast of Sq Dorchester is best known for its monument of John A Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, who addressed the…
0.22 MILES
The palatial Windsor was Canada’s first grand hotel (1878) and played host to all manner of international guests and celebrities, including Mark Twain,…
0.23 MILES
Constructed of polyester resin, Raymond Mason’s sculpture of 65 people is one of Montréal’s most photographed pieces of public art. The work shows a…
0.23 MILES
Built for Montréal’s booming Irish population in 1847, the interior of St Patrick’s Basilica contains huge columns from single pine trunks, an ornate…