Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec

Few museums can show four centuries of a single society's art, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) does it across three connected buildings on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. Its collection is devoted chiefly to Quebec art from the seventeenth century to the present, from religious works of New France through painters such as Cornelius Krieghoff, Ozias Leduc and Jean Paul Lemieux to the modernists Alfred Pellan, Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle. Riopelle's monumental L'Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg is a highlight, and the museum also holds a notable collection of Inuit art.

The buildings are part of the experience. The Gérard-Morisset pavilion opened in 1933 as the original museum. The Charles-Baillairgé pavilion is a converted nineteenth-century prison where some cells are preserved. The glass-clad Pierre Lassonde pavilion, designed by OMA, opened in 2016 and faces Grande Allée.

More than 300,000 people visit each year. The museum particularly suits anyone curious about how Quebec has seen itself through its art.