4 Best Sights in Quebec, Canada

Not surprisingly, Canada's oldest museum--and one of its most important institutions for the arts--has one of the finest collections of Canadian art anywhere. The works of such luminaries as Paul Kane, the Group of Seven, Paul-Émile Borduas, and Marc-Aurèle Fortin are displayed here in the Bourgie Pavilion, a space built onto the back of the neoclassical Erskine and American United Church, one of the city's most historic Protestant churches. The nave has been preserved as a meeting place and exhibition hall and also displays the church's 18 Tiffany stained-glass windows, the biggest collection of Tiffany's work outside the United States. The rest of the museum's permanent collection, which includes works by everyone from Rembrandt to Renoir, is housed in its four other pavilions: the neoclassical Hornstein Pavilion; the modernist 1970s Stewart Pavilion; the glittering, glass-fronted Desmarais Pavilion; and the cantilevered glass and aluminum Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, which looks like an illuminated paper lantern at night. All of the pavilions are linked by tunnels. Admission is half-price from 5 to 9 pm Wednesday.

Situated on the city's liveliest avenue, the Grand Allée, this neoclassical museum in the park with a slick and modern wing is a remarkable steel-and-glass setting for its collection of 22,000 traditional and contemporary pieces of Québec art. Designed by starchitects Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu, the Lassonde Pavilion, added in 2016, features three stacked, cascading galleries; a grand stairwell that spirals dramatically from the top floor to the basement, where a rising almost-mile-long tunnel connects to the museum’s three other wings. MNBAQ houses works by local legends Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jean-Paul Lemieux, Alfred Pellan, Fernand Leduc, and Horatio Walker that are particularly notable, as well as temporary exhibits by international artists such as Turner, Miró, and Giacometti. The original museum building in Parc des Champs-de-Bataille is part of an abandoned prison dating from 1867; a hallway of cells, with the iron bars and courtyard, has been preserved as part of a permanent exhibition on the prison's history.

If you have a taste for pastoral landscapes and formal portraits, you might want to stick with the Musée des Beaux-Arts, but for a walk on the wild side of art, head to the Musée d'art contemporain (MAC) and see what you can make of the jagged splashes of color that cover the canvases of the "Automatistes," as Québec's rebellious artists of the 1930s styled themselves. The works of the Automatistes form the core of this museum's collection of 5,000 pieces. The museum often has weekend programs and art workshops, some of which are geared toward children, and almost all are free. And for a little romance and music with your art, try the Vendredis Nocturnes (Nocturnal Fridays) with live music, bar service, and guided tours of the exhibits ( macm.org/en/activities/les-nocturnes-du-mac).  At the moment, MAC is housed in Place Ville-Marie (Métro McGill or Bonaventure) while a new building is under construction. The museum expects to unveil its new home in 2028.

This fine-arts museum has a permanent exhibit on the history of art in the region from 1800 to the present. More than 10 exhibits per year are staged in its three galleries, with an emphasis on artists from the Eastern Townships.