Canadian War Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa showcases Canada’s military history through exhibitions, artifacts, and public programs.
Planning your visit
The Canadian War Museum's building is an argument in concrete. Raymond Moriyama — who spent his childhood in a Japanese-Canadian internment camp — designed it as a low wedge rising from the ground beside the Ottawa river, with a roof of regenerating vegetation, walls that lean unsettlingly, and Memorial Hall, a bare concrete room containing a single headstone from an unknown Canadian soldier, positioned so that sunlight falls on it only at 11am on 11 November.
The galleries run chronologically: early conflicts and the wars between colonial powers, the First World War where Canada's national identity was substantially forged at Vimy, the Second World War, the Cold War and modern peacekeeping and combat deployments.
Hitler's parade limousine is among the artefacts, alongside tanks, aircraft and the Beaverbrook collection of war art, which is one of the finest anywhere.
The treatment is unsentimental about what war does.
Bookable options are admission tickets. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is Canadian War Museum?
Canadian War Museum is in Ottawa, Canada. The map on this page marks its exact location.
Do I need to book Canadian War Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
