Pointe-à-Callière Museum

Montreal, Old Montreal. If you see one Montreal museum for its history, make it this one. It stands where Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and their fellow settlers landed in 1642 to found Ville-Marie, and much of the visit happens underground among real remains: the city's first Catholic cemetery, the William collector sewer and the site of Fort Ville-Marie. It also refuses to start the story in 1642. First Nations artefacts and a permanent exhibition on the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701 put the Indigenous alliances that made the colony possible at the centre. Opened in 1992 for the city's 350th anniversary, it is a reliable winter choice, since most of it is indoors and below ground.