Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the grand colonnaded edifice of Canada’s oldest chartered bank, built in 1847, dominates the north side of Place d’Armes and is still a working bank. The imposing interior has 32 marble columns and a coffered 20m ceiling in Italian Renaissance style over a long row of tellers behind glass partitions. The helmeted marble lady is Patria, representing a minor Roman goddess of patriotism to honor the war dead.
A snoozy money museum (admission free) inside the bank has a replica of a cashier’s window, old banknotes and an account of early banking in Canada.