National Gallery of Canada

The National Gallery of Canada announces itself before you even walk through the door. Moshe Safdie's 1988 building is a cathedral of glass and granite prisms that catches Ottawa's light in ways that make the architecture itself the first exhibit. And then there's Maman — Louise Bourgeois's 30-foot bronze spider standing guard outside, its sac of marble eggs visible beneath its belly. The spider has become as much an Ottawa landmark as the Peace Tower, and photographing it against the skyline is practically a rite of passage.

Inside, the Canadian galleries are the heart of the collection. The Group of Seven rooms — Tom Thomson's The Jack Pine, Lawren Harris's icebergs and mountains, Emily Carr's spiralling forests — constitute the most important collection of Canadian art anywhere. These aren't just paintings on walls; the galleries are arranged to build a visual narrative of how Canadian artists learned to see their own landscape. The Rideau Street Chapel, a reconstructed 1888 fan-vaulted chapel saved from demolition and reassembled inside the gallery, is a jaw-dropping surprise on the third floor that most visitors stumble upon by accident.

The contemporary and Indigenous art wings have expanded significantly in recent years. The gallery has made a deliberate commitment to Indigenous artists — works by Kenojuak Ashevak, Norval Morrisseau, and Rebecca Belmore occupy prominent positions throughout the permanent collection, not tucked into a side room.

Thursday evenings from 5 to 8 PM, general admission is free. This is when locals visit — the galleries take on a different energy, more relaxed, more conversational. The bookstore is one of the best museum shops in the country, heavy on art books and Canadian design. The café overlooks the Ottawa River and Parliament Hill through those soaring glass walls.

The gallery sits at the edge of the ByWard Market, so you can easily combine a morning of art with an afternoon of food and shopping — the two are a five-minute walk apart.