I visited Montreal on vacation in the summer of 2025. It has some very interesting historic buildings, including the Old Montreal district, along with more modern skyscrapers. The high French Canadian population made it feel very European.
Montreal is the largest city in Quebec and the second-largest city in Canada. It has a population of around 1,750,000 people.
The land that Montreal sits on today was first settled as the village of Hochelaga in the 16th century by the Saint Lawrence Iroquoians. The first European to visit the site was Jacques Cartier in 1535. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain noticed that the Native Americans and their settlements had disappeared, and he established a fur trading post where Pointe-a-Calliere stands today. In 1639, the island of Montreal was acquired by Jerome Le Royer de La Dauversiere, and the Societe Notre-Dame de Montreal was founded. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve and a group of French colonists arrived in 1642, and they established the city of Ville-Marie, which would later become Montreal.
Ville-Marie faced attacks from the Native American tribes nearby early on. Maisonneuve had to seek out 100 additional settlers from France in 1652--if he could not get enough volunteers, Ville-Marie would have been abandoned. In 1685, there were 600 residents in the town, which became important to the fur trade and exploration of Canada. Ville-Marie became known as Montreal in 1705.
The French ruled Montreal until 1760, when it was attacked and taken over by Britain as part of the Seven Years' War. Montreal was invaded and occupied again by the United States as part of the American Revolution.
Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832, and projects such as the Lachine Canal and Victoria Bridge further connected it to transportation networks. Between 1844 and 1849, it was the capital of the province of Canada, but the arson of the Parliament Buildings in protest of a controversial law led the city to lose this status. By 1860, it was the largest city in British North America.
Montreal had reached a population of one million people in 1951, but Toronto's economic growth had begun to challenge its influence. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, ships could bypass Montreal, which hastened the end of its dominance. Expo 67 was a major cultural event for Montreal during this period.
The 1970s were challenging years for the city. The French-speaking citizens were worried about the continuity of their culture, beginning with the 1970 October Crisis, where two politicians were taken hostage by a Quebec independence organization. In 1976, the Parti Quebecois (which supported Quebec sovereignty) was elected, leading to a small exodus of businesses and citizens from the city. The same year, the Summer Olympics were held there, which brought attention but also major debt with the construction of Olympic Stadium.
In 2002, Montreal merged with the 27 other cities on the island of Montreal, which was very controversial and perceived by the English-speaking suburbs to be forced by the Parti Quebecois. A demerger took place in 2006, leaving a total of 15 municipalities on the island.
A ★ denotes a building with its own article.