Montreal, the longest city in Canada, it is the second largest French-speaking city in the world.
Founded in the 17th century as Ville-Marie, Montreal soon became a large multilingual metropolis.
Now one of Montreal's biggest tourist attractions, it is a true underground city that keeps locals safe and warm during the cold winter months.
In 1962, an underground shopping mall under Montreal's first skyscraper started a trend that would eventually lead to the construction of the largest underground city in the world. The mall, called Place Ville-MarieIt was designed by the famous architect IM Pei and was modeled after New York Center's Rockefeller.
When the Metro was built in 1966 - in time for Expo '67 - more underground centers and tunnels began to appear, linking the metro stations with important places in the city - such as office buildings and hotels - eventually forming what would become the segment. central city land, is now known as Return (homonym of the French word «réseau», Underground)
Over the years, more underground segments have been added to Reso. The underground city now stretches 32 kilometers (20 miles) and is 4 million square meters.
According to official statistics, its corridors link with 10 metro stations, two bus terminals, 1.200 offices, around 2.000 stores, including two department stores, approximately 1.600 homes, 200 restaurants, 40 cinemas and places of leisure and entertainment, 7 hotels, the University of Quebec in Montreal and the campus of the University of Montreal, the Olympic Park, Place des Arts and 3 exhibition halls: Place Bonaventure, the Convention Center (Palais des Congrès de Montréal) and the Olympic Center .
To enter Reso very easy. From above, there are about 200 entry points to the underground city. An estimated 500.000 make their way through the underground city each day and do so with ease, so there is always someone willing to offer directions.
Adding to the aesthetics of the Reso, the various sections of the underground city are decidedly different from each other, so once you get used to the system, it is easy to determine where you are in the complex.