Hotel Bonaventure - Haunted Hotel in Montréal, Quebec

Nestled on the top two floors of the sprawling 17-storey Place Bonaventure, Hotel Bonaventure offers 397 spacious rooms including 5 luxurious suites, conference halls, the fancy Kube Restaurant, a heated rooftop pool, and 2.5 acres of beautiful gardens on the rooftop—a true garden of Eden overlooking the bustling streets of Montreal. This 4-star hotel occupies what was once the world's largest building. Before Place Bonaventure's construction, an enormous gaping hole existed in Downtown Montreal with Canadian National Railways tracks leading from the Mount Royal tunnel to the defunct Bonaventure Train Station. In February 1963, the railway company sought proposals to develop air rights above the train-filled pit. Concordia Estates Development Company submitted plans for a Canadian Trade Centre encompassing 2 million square feet for conventions, exhibitions, office space, and wholesale trade. The concept was finalized in October 1965 and built directly over the railyard. Place Bonaventure opened in 1967 during Expo '67, listed as the world's largest building at that time with 3.1 million square feet—exceeding even the Empire State Building. Constructed with sand-blasted concrete in Brutalist style, the exterior walls were built ribbed and angular, creating an imposing structure that dominated Montreal's skyline. While Hotel Bonaventure doesn't harbor traditional ghosts, it was the site of one of the most credible and widely-reported UFO sightings in Canadian history. On November 7, 1990, at 7:20 p.m., an American tourist swimming in the magnificent heated rooftop pool spotted something unusual in the cloudy sky gliding toward the hotel. A combination of green, amber, and yellow light beams emanated from a gigantic round, metallic object that coasted silently toward the hotel from the direction of the nearby Stock Market Building. The UFO stopped directly over Hotel Bonaventure and hovered silently and almost without motion. The American woman alerted the female lifeguard to the strange UFO, who called the hotel's security guard. Soon around thirty people—hotel guests, staff, and management—made their way to the hotel's roof and stood in amazement watching the hovering craft. Occasionally, the lights from the UFO would appear to glow brighter. Hotel management contacted police, fearing this might be some kind of warning or preemptive signal. Francois Lippe was the first police officer to arrive, and he immediately contacted his superiors asking them to come look at the object. Chief of Police Robert Masson arrived at the scene and immediately spotted the bizarre object hovering above them. Masson oversaw the initial investigation, ordering nearby spotlights illuminating a construction project turned off to rule out optical illusion—but the object remained clearly visible. He contacted the local airport and a nearby military radar outpost, but neither facility claimed to see anything on their radar screens. The RCMP, military, and even NASA all eventually investigated the incident. When a cargo plane passed between the roof and the UFO—visible on airport radar at 6,000 feet—Masson estimated the UFO was hovering at approximately 8,000 to 10,000 feet above ground. Based on this calculation and visual observation, he estimated the craft's size as "around five full football fields." Marcel Laroche, a La Presse journalist, was dispatched to the hotel and arrived just after 9 p.m., by which time the object had been visible for nearly two hours. He snapped several photographs of the phenomenon, and these photographs are regarded as proof that the UFO was a solid object rather than a reflection or atmospheric phenomenon. As the evening progressed, clouds continued to thicken. Just after 10 p.m., the cloudy sky began obscuring the UFO, and around 10 minutes later, it was completely enveloped by clouds and never seen again. How long it remained over Montreal after being obscured is unknown. The story was covered extensively by media the following morning, but all official files were classified as Top Secret within less than 24 hours, prompting conspiracy theories about government cover-ups. Years later, Police Chief Robert Masson felt the military was "hiding something from him" and not being completely honest in answering his questions. In 2005, he told a Canadian television program: "I am convinced that I saw something that wasn't made by any inhabitants of this planet. There's no doubt in my mind it came from somewhere else (other) than Earth!" In 1992, a 25-page report titled "Details Surrounding a Large Stationary Object Above Montreal" was prepared by UFO researcher Bernard Guénette and Richard F. Haines, a former NASA scientist. The report suggested a huge physical object about 540 metres wide was responsible for the beams of light but failed to identify where the UFO came from or why it was visiting Montreal. The report concluded: "evidence for existence of highly unusual, hovering, silent large object is indisputable." French television produced "L'Enquêteur du Paranormal – L'OVNI de la Place Bonaventure," and CBC created a documentary about the strange encounter. Given the credibility of the witnesses—including the Chief of Police and dozens of hotel staff and guests—along with photographic evidence and the involvement of multiple law enforcement and government agencies, this sighting is seen as one of the most credible UFO encounters in Canadian history. Montreal has a long history as a UFO hotspot. In 1663, during the New France era, following a series of earthquakes, witnesses reported serpents with wings of fire flying through the air. A historian quoted a narrator describing: "For 40 days, we saw men on horseback who rushed through air richly robed, and armed with lances, like troops of cavalry; steeds ranged in squadrons which dashed forth against each other; combatants who joined battle hand to hand; shields shaken; a multitude with helmets and naked swords." In January 1977, 58-year-old Florida Malbouef witnessed a large "oyster-shaped" craft land on a nearby building sixty feet away, and two tall, thin beings in "tight white uniforms" emerged, briefly surveyed the area, then returned to their craft and took off. Her son investigated the next morning and found a circle in the snow exposing the rooftop and a pattern of unearthly footprints. Additional sightings occurred in 1985, 2012, 2013, and 2014, with witnesses capturing video and photographs. Why Montreal attracts such attention from otherworldly visitors remains unknown. Perhaps the 1990 UFO selected Hotel Bonaventure because of the sheer size and density of the gigantic Place Bonaventure structure—as one of the largest buildings on Earth at the time, it may have attracted extra-terrestrials due to its visibility from space. While Hotel Bonaventure may not host traditional ghosts, it stands as the site of one of Canada's most thoroughly documented and officially investigated encounters with the unexplained, where something massive and inexplicable hovered silently above a rooftop pool for nearly three hours before disappearing into the clouds, never to return.