Musée de l'Amérique francophone

In Old Quebec beside the Séminaire de Québec, this institution opened in 1806 as the Musée du Séminaire and is recognized as Canada’s oldest museum. Beginning with science teaching objects, it grew into a large collection centered on French-speaking culture in North America while also preserving materials from farther afield. Its holdings include art, rare books, fossils, coins, silverware, Cypriot artifacts, and the Séminaire’s censored Enfer collection, with surviving notes on forbidden reading. The building was planned in 1838 by Thomas Baillairgé, and the museum’s archives joined UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2007. A former chapel on the site now also preserves part of Quebec’s religious and musical heritage.