Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #2 in (Old) Ottawa, Canada
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Tour Facts
7.2 km
194 m
Experience (Old) Ottawa in Canada in a whole new way with our self-guided sightseeing tour. This site not only offers you practical information and insider tips, but also a rich variety of activities and sights you shouldn't miss. Whether you love art and culture, want to explore historical sites or simply want to experience the vibrant atmosphere of a lively city - you'll find everything you need for your personal adventure here.
Activities in (Old) OttawaIndividual Sights in (Old) OttawaSight 1: Library of Parliament
The Library of Parliament is the main information repository and research resource for the Parliament of Canada. The main branch of the library sits at the rear of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. The library survived the 1916 fire that destroyed Centre Block. The library has been augmented and renovated several times since its construction in 1876, the last between 2002 and 2006, though the form and decor remain essentially authentic. The building today serves as a Canadian icon, and appears on the obverse of the Canadian ten-dollar bill.
Wikipedia: Library of Parliament (EN), Website, Heritage Website
Sight 2: Centre Block
The Centre Block is the main building of the Canadian parliamentary complex on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, containing the House of Commons and Senate chambers, as well as the offices of a number of members of parliament, senators, and senior administration for both legislative houses. It is also the location of several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honour, the Memorial Chamber, and Confederation Hall.
Sight 3: Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern bank of the Ottawa River that houses the Parliament of Canada in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It accommodates a suite of Gothic revival buildings whose architectural elements were chosen to evoke the history of parliamentary democracy. Parliament Hill attracts approximately three million visitors each year. The Parliamentary Protective Service is responsible for law enforcement on Parliament Hill and in the parliamentary precinct, while the National Capital Commission is responsible for maintaining the nine-hectare (22-acre) area of the grounds.
Sight 4: Centennial Flame
The Centennial Flame is a monument on Parliament Hill commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. First lit in January 1967, the Flame worked with natural gas and as of 2021 uses biogas, presenting a fountain that does not freeze in winter. Money thrown into it is a donation for people with disabilities, some of whom have received over $5,000.
Sight 5: Bytown Museum
The Bytown Museum is a museum in Ottawa located in the Colonel By Valley at the Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal at the Ottawa River, just below Parliament Hill. Housed in the Commissariat Building, Ottawa's oldest remaining stone building, the museum provides a comprehensive overview of the origins of Bytown and its development and growth into the present city of Ottawa.
Sight 6: Rideau Canal Celtic Cross
The Rideau Canal Celtic Cross is a memorial in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, erected to commemorate the workers and their families that died building the Rideau Canal between 1826 and 1832. The granite Celtic cross has five engraved symbols: an Irish harp; a pick and shovel; a mosquito; a wheel barrow, and an explosion. It is erected close to Lock #1, in the Colonel By Valley, below Major's Hill Park and Château Laurier Hotel. The group of volunteers who erected the cross were drawn together in 2002 by the Ottawa and District Labour Council with the goal of erecting the memorial. The committee included representatives of the Workers Heritage Centre Museum and the Irish Society of the National Capital Region. The group had support from the Kingston Irish Folk Club, which has raised a number of monuments in the Kingston area. Upon the unveiling of the cross at the canal's first lock at the Ottawa River, the committee disbanded.
Sight 7: Major's Hill Park
Join Free Tour*Major's Hill Park is a park in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. The park stands above the Rideau Canal at the point where it enters the Ottawa River. The parliament buildings can be seen across the canal to the west, to the north of the park is the National Gallery of Canada, and to the east are the United States embassy and the Byward Market. To the south is the Chateau Laurier hotel, built on land that was once part of the park.
Sight 8: Dancing Bear
Pauta Saila was an Inuit artist from Kilaparutua, Baffin Island, Canada who resided in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. His sister was artist Sharni Pootoogook.
Sight 9: Connaught Building
The Connaught Building is a historic office building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by Public Services and Procurement Canada. It is located at 555 MacKenzie Avenue, just south of the American Embassy. To the east, the building looks out on the Byward Market, and to the west is MacKenzie Avenue and Major's Hill Park. Today, it houses a portion of Headquarters operations for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The Minister and Commissioner of the CRA have offices in the building.
Sight 10: Fairmont Château Laurier
The Fairmont Château Laurier is a 660,000-square-foot (61,000 m2) hotel with 429 guest rooms in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive and designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to complement the adjacent Parliament buildings. The hotel is above the Colonel By Valley, home of the Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal, and overlooks the Ottawa River. The main dining room overlooks Major's Hill Park. The reception rooms consist of the Wedgewood-blue Adam Room, the Laurier Room defined with Roman columns, the Empire-style ballroom, and the Drawing Room decorated with cream and gold plaster ornament. The hotel was designated a national historic site in 1980.
Sight 11: Valiants Memorial
The Valiants Memorial is a military monument located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It commemorates fourteen key figures from the military history of Canada. Dedicated by Governor General Michaëlle Jean on 5 November 2006, the work consists of nine busts and five statues, all life-sized, by artists Marlene Hilton Moore and John McEwen.
Sight 12: National War Memorial
The National War Memorial, titled The Response, is a tall, granite memorial arch with accreted bronze sculptures in Ottawa, Ontario, designed by Vernon March and first dedicated by King George VI in 1939. Originally built to commemorate the Canadians who died in the First World War, it was in 1982 rededicated to also include those killed in the Second World War and Korean War and again in 2014 to add the dead from the Second Boer War and War in Afghanistan, as well as all Canadians killed in all conflicts past and future. It now serves as the pre-eminent war memorial of 76 cenotaphs in Canada. In 2000, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added in front of the memorial and symbolizes the sacrifices made by all Canadians who have died or may yet die for their country.
Sight 13: Confederation Square
Confederation Square is an urban square in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is considered the second most important ceremonial centre in Canada's capital city, after Parliament Hill. Roughly triangular in area, with Canada's National War Memorial at its centre and the Valiants Memorial at its periphery, the square is bounded by Wellington Street to the north and branches of Elgin Street to the east and west.
Sight 14: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a tomb situated before the National War Memorial in Confederation Square, Ottawa, Ontario. The tomb is dedicated to Canadian service members, and holds the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier who died in France during the First World War; selected from a Commonwealth War Grave near Vimy, in the vicinity where the Battle of Vimy Ridge took place.
Sight 15: Lord Stanley Cup Monument
The Lord Stanley's Gift Monument is a monument in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It commemorates the donation of the Stanley Cup ice hockey championship trophy by Canada's Governor-General the Lord Stanley of Preston in 1893. It is located on the eastern end of the Sparks Street Mall. It was constructed at the culmination of a public campaign to commemorate the donation of the trophy.
Sight 16: Central Chambers
Central Chambers is a building at the corner of Elgin Street and Queen Street in Ottawa that is a National Historic Site. It is located at 42 to 54 Elgin Street, next to Bell Block. It faces the Canadian War Memorial at Confederation Square. Central Chambers was built between 1890 and 1893 and designed by John James Browne of Montreal, an example of Queen Anne Revival commercial architecture. Formerly serving as an office for the Canadian Atlantic Railway, it now houses the National Capital Commission.
Sight 17: National Arts Centre
The National Arts Centre (NAC) is a Canadian centre for the performing arts located in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is operated by the eponymous performing arts organisation National Arts Centre. The National Arts Centre was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2006.
Wikipedia: National Arts Centre (building) (EN), Website, Heritage Website
Sight 18: Confederation Park
Confederation Park (French: Parc de la Confédération) is a public park and National Historic Site of Canada, located in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the south by Laurier Avenue and Ottawa City Hall; on the east by the Rideau Canal and National Defence Headquarters; on the north by the Mackenzie King Bridge, the Rideau Centre and the National Arts Centre; and to the west by Elgin Street and the Lord Elgin Hotel.
Sight 19: Ottawa Art Gallery
The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) is a municipal gallery in Ottawa, Ontario that opened in 1988 at Arts Court. The gallery has a permanent collection of over one thousand works, houses the City of Ottawa-owned Firestone Collection of Canadian Art, and provides community, educational and public programming. The OAG focuses on acquiring, interpreting, and sharing art as well as acting as a cultural meeting place.
Sight 20: St. Paul's-Eastern United Church
St. Paul's-Eastern United Church is one of the oldest congregations in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The stone Romanesque church building is located in the heart of downtown Ottawa on the corner of Daly and Cumberland Streets, near the University of Ottawa and two blocks east of the Rideau Centre.
Sight 21: St. Alban's Anglican Church (Ottawa)
St. Albans Anglican Church is an Anglican church in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is one of Ottawa's oldest surviving church buildings and one of its most historic.
Wikipedia: St. Alban's Anglican Church (Ottawa) (EN), Website
Sight 22: Ottawa French Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Ottawa French Seventh-day Adventist Church is a francophone Seventh-day Adventist church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located on King Edward Avenue, just north of Rideau Street.
Sight 23: Laurier House
Laurier House is a National Historic Site in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was formerly the residence of two Canadian prime ministers: Sir Wilfrid Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King. The home is now a historic house museum that is open to the public for guided tours from Victoria Day in May until Thanksgiving in October. Its address is 335 Laurier Avenue East.
Wikipedia: Laurier House (EN), Website, Opening Hours, Heritage Website
Sight 24: All Saints
All Saints' Anglican Church is a former Anglican church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The building was sold in 2015 and is currently a community hub for the neighbourhood, called All Saints Sandy Hill.
Wikipedia: All Saints Anglican Church (Ottawa) (EN), Website
Sight 25: Turkish Embassy Ottawa
This is a list of properties which have been designated by the City of Ottawa under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act as having cultural heritage value or interest. At many properties, a bronze plaque gives a bilingual description of the property's history.
Wikipedia: List of designated heritage properties in Ottawa (EN)
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