Pointe-à-Callière Museum, Archaeology and history museum in Old Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
Pointe-à-Callière Museum is a complex of buildings in Old Montreal that combines underground archaeological sites with modern displays. It features discoveries from several centuries and uses videos and interactive exhibits to tell the city's story.
The museum opened in 1992 to mark Montreal's 350th anniversary and stands where French colonists built a fortified settlement called Ville-Marie in 1642. The underground remains of this early settlement are still visible and form the core of what you see here.
The museum's name comes from the point of land where Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and other French settlers landed in 1642. Its collections hold artifacts from the First Nations of the Montreal region, showing how cultures coexisted and how the French and British empires shaped the territory. In 2001, ceremonies for the 300th anniversary of the 1701 Great Peace of Montreal were organized with Aboriginal partners from Quebec, Canada and the United States.
The museum is located in Old Montreal at Place Royale and is easy to reach on foot. It is open Tuesday through Sunday, with longer hours during warmer months, and you can buy tickets online beforehand.
You can walk into underground passages where original artifacts from Montreal's first cemetery remain in their original locations. These graves and personal belongings offer a direct connection to the city's earliest inhabitants.
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