Explore Quebec City

The Parliament Building is the seat of the National Assembly of Quebec, built in the Second Empire style from 1877 to 1886 to plans by Eugène-Étienne Taché, just outside the walls of Old Quebec. Its façade carries statues of figures from Quebec's history; visitors enter through the reception pavilion for self-guided or guided tours, exhibitions and the parliamentary library.

Old Quebec is the historic centre of Quebec City, founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 on the St. Lawrence. The Upper Town on Cap Diamant, still enclosed by stone fortifications, and the Lower Town at the foot of the cliff, linked by stairs and a funicular, have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.

Notre-Dame de Québec is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Quebec on Rue De Buade in Old Quebec, seat of the oldest diocese in North America north of Mexico. In 1874 it became the first church on the continent raised to minor basilica, and its crypt holds four governors of New France and the bishops of Quebec, among them François de Laval.

The Château Frontenac is a hotel in the Châteauesque style on Cap Diamant in Old Quebec, designed by the New York architect Bruce Price for the Canadian Pacific Railway and opened in 1893. Its copper roofs and turrets rise above the Dufferin Terrace and the St. Lawrence; visitors who are not guests can see the lobby or join a 50-minute guided tour of the building.

The Citadelle of Quebec is a star-shaped fortress on Cap Diamant, built by the British from 1820 to 1850 to defend Quebec City. It is still an active military base, home of the Royal 22e Régiment and a residence of the Governor General, so the fortress is seen on a 60-minute guided tour; the regiment's museum in the East Casemate is visited on your own.

Rue du Petit-Champlain is a narrow pedestrian street about 260 metres long in the Lower Town of Old Quebec, at the foot of Cap Diamant, lined with shops and restaurants in old stone houses. The Breakneck Stairs and the lower station of the funicular to the Dufferin Terrace are at its northern end, and a trompe-l'œil mural on number 102 tells the district's history.

Place Royale is a cobbled square in the Lower Town of Old Quebec on the site where Samuel de Champlain built his settlement in 1608. Stone houses rebuilt after the fire of 1682 surround a bust of Louis XIV, erected in 1686, and the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires; the square was restored to its French colonial look from 1970.

The Musée de la civilisation is a museum of human societies and history in the Lower Town of Old Quebec, near the St. Lawrence. Designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 1988, its building incorporates the older Maison Estèbe and Banque de Paris; its collection of over 225,000 objects feeds permanent and temporary exhibitions on Quebec and the wider world.

The Plains of Abraham are a 98-hectare plateau of lawns and woods on the cliff above the St. Lawrence in Quebec City, between the Citadelle and Grande Allée. The British victory here on 13 September 1759 led to the fall of New France; since 1908 the land has been a park run by the National Battlefields Commission, with Martello towers and a museum.

The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec is the art museum of the province of Quebec, opened in 1933 in the Battlefields Park in Quebec City. Its four buildings, one of them a former 19th-century prison, hold more than 40,000 works from the 16th century to today, most of them made in Quebec or by Quebec artists.

Montmorency Falls Park surrounds the 83-metre waterfall where the Montmorency River drops into the St. Lawrence, on the border of Quebec City and Boischatel, about 12 km east of Old Quebec. Run by Sépaq, it has a cable car to the top, a suspension bridge over the crest and a staircase of 487 steps down the cliff beside the falls.