240 McLeod St

What a discovery! With the announcement of a more gloomy day, we chose to visit the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. When we thought we would spend a few hours there, we actually spent the day.

Instructive, and pleasant to see, the four floors are to be visited. Divided into galleries, you will find an array of subjects and specimens that bring us closer to our Canadian nature. We are surrounded daily by a beautiful variety of animal species more than we realize. 

The names of the rooms are representative of the subjects exhibited. You will find the gallery of the Arctic, that of fossils, water, earth, birds, mammals and living nature. An outdoor garden gives you access to other elements of our nature. Here, we discuss elements of our current environment and also what is extinct.

The museum is in a sumptuous building which leads us to believe that it was designed with the firm intention of being a place where nature is the heart of the matter. Note the insertions in the architecture of the castle. There is no doubt that the subject has been taken seriously since the beginning of the project. The building is also called the Victoria Memorial Museum building, a royal link for a very imposing structure. A large tower was planned at the front of the building. It was built but quickly destroyed. The ground being so unstable for such a heavy structure, major cracks were noticed very early in the construction and for security reasons, it was demolished.

Construction began in 1905 and continued until 1911. This place was created to house the natural and human history collections as well as the Geological Survey of Canada. Other museums have also used the premises such as the Museum of Fine Arts. Some floors are administrative and will serve as a temporary place for the government following the major fire of 1916 in the central building of the parliament. It was until 1922 that the House of Commons was hosted in this mansion. It was within its walls that Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier was exhibited in 1919.

The architecture and the museum are two reasons not to miss this remarkable place.

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