- It's built on an island. A 30-mile-long island along the convergence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, called Montreal Island, to be exact. A tunnel and 15 bridges link the island to the mainland. It's the largest of over two hundred islands known as the Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands.
- The settlement founded on 17 May 1642 wasn't called Montreal - it was called Ville-Marie or “City of Mary,” and was located on the southern shore of Montreal island. It was 1705 before the name Montreal began appearing on official documents. It was incorporated as a city in 1832. The name Montreal comes from Mount Royal, a 764 feet high hill in the heart of the city.
- The hill has a 103 ft high illuminated cross at its summit. In 1642, the new settlement was threatened with flooding. A man named Paul de Chomedey prayed to the Virgin Mary for the flooding to stop. He made a bargain with her - if she answered his prayer, he would erect a cross on top of Mount Royal. The flooding did stop, and de Chomedey kept his part of the bargain. He climbed the hill with a wooden cross and planted it there. Today, the cross is usually lit in white LED lights. There's also a rule that says no building in the city can be higher than the cross.
- The world’s first recorded indoor ice hockey game was played in Montreal on March 3rd, 1875 at the Victoria Skating Rink. James Creighton, a student from McGill University, organised the game. For people keen on less physical pursuits, the video game Assassin’s Creed was created in Montreal by Ubisoft. The world's first online search engine was also invented here in 1990 by three students. It was called "Archie".
- Montreal was the location for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed-in for peace in 1969. Their first choice was New York, but at the time John was banned from entering America. The Bahamas was considered but rejected for being too hot; and the couple settled on the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. The song, Give Peace A Chance was composed during the bed-in.
- Famous people from Montreal include singers Leonard Cohen and Céline Dion; Formula One drivers Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve; Justin Trudeau, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada; William Shatner, aka James T Kirk and Autumn Phillips, wife of Peter Phillips, the eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II.
- Montreal has a number of sister cities including Hiroshima, Brussels, Dublin, Lyon, Manila, Port-au-Prince and Shanghai.
- Montreal's Metro rail system was inaugurated in 1966. It has four lines and 68 stations. Each station was designed by a different architect and has a theme and original artwork. Seven of the stations are underground, and form part of the Underground City. The Underground City is 20 miles of tunnels which connect shopping malls, museums, universities, hotels, banks and offices. This is so residents don't have to go out in the bitterly cold winter weather. On average it snows 60 days a year in Montreal and there are 12 days each year when the windchill is below -30 C. They also come in handy for avoiding the heat in summer.
- Montreal's Flag has five symbols on it. A cross for Christianity, and the symbols of the main nationalities which make up the population: a fleur-de-lis is for the French, a shamrock for the Irish, a thistle for the Scottish and the Lancastrian Rose for the English.
- It's a great place to eat out - it has the second highest number of restaurants per capita in North America and the highest in Canada. Only New York has more. Visitors to the city can visit Mount Royal Park, located on the hill. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also was a co-designer of New York City’s Central Park; La Ronde, Canada’s second largest amusement park, built on man-made islands; or the "Midgets Palace", once home to Rose and Philippe Nicol. They were both under four feet tall and the house was designed specially for them.
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