The Château Ramezay, hub of Montreal life and development for over 300 years, has been a museum dedicated to conserving and conveying that heritage since 1895. It now beckons all generations of Montrealers and travelers alike to step back in time through a venerable portal to the past.
One of the few vestiges of New France open to the public, the Château invites you to relive history through its various permanent and temporary exhibitions, its multimedia portrayals of historic figures (in six languages) and its replica of a French colonial garden. Its many community-based educational and cultural activities link the life of today to that of the past.
In 1705, Montreal governor Claude de Ramezay built this home, along with its large orchard and garden. Over the next three centuries, luminaries such as Canadian governor-general Lord Elgin and Québécois poet Émile Nelligan passed through its doors. In 1895, the house became a museum, and it is now one of the few Montreal buildings from the early days of New France that you can tour. Educational activities and multilingual exhibitions draw on the museum’s collection of roughly 30,000 historical artifacts to illustrate the history of Montreal and Quebec—and show us how the rich and famous of the past lived.