HERITAGE DAY 2026!

Celebrate this year's theme "Voices of a City: Celebrating Two Centuries of Collective Histories and Local Heroes in Ottawa".

Join us at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, February 17 at Jean Pigott Place, City Hall for a celebration of Heritage Day. We will have a booth at the Marketplace there and we hope you will stop by and say hello. 

Heritage Day is organized by Capital Heritage Connexion in partnership with the City of Ottawa Cultural and Heritage Programs Branch. 

Why celebrate Heritage Day?

2026 is a big year for heritage in Ottawa. The City is marking the 200th Anniversary of the founding of Bytown and the start of the construction of the Rideau Canal. As we celebrate this milestone the City wants to capture the diverse voices that helped shape our history. Their stories are told through our cultural places, whether they are historic buildings or sites, archives, libraries, museums, commercial mainstreets or districts, places of faith, industrial areas, or cultural landscapes. 

Heritage Day is also a chance to recognize the contributions of the many dedicated volunteers and staff who promote heritage conservation and education. In 2025, Heritage Ottawa was honoured when our past-president and committed advocate, David Flemming, was the recipient of the Louise and Eric Moore Award for Outstanding Heritage Volunteerism. This past November, the City renamed a heritage award in his honour: The David Flemming Community Heritage Award.

More on offer during Heritage Week!

HERITAGE OTTAWA'S ANNUAL PHILLIPS MEMORIAL LECTURE: Wednesday, February 18, 2025: DEMOLITION BY NEGLECT: A PANEL PRESENTATION-DISCUSSION

Heritage Ottawa has also curated a collection of links to Virtual Tours of museums, galleries, historic sites and other cultural centres, along with an interesting collection of Lectures + Films that are FREE to stream online.  Search EXPLORE on our main menu to discover these and other resources.

Also on our website, discover Ottawa's history and heritage through 50 Years | 50 Stories, a special project telling the illustrated stories of 50 places that Heritage Ottawa helped to save during our first 50 years of advocacy efforts.

We welcome and appreciate your support. Consider joining Heritage Ottawa as a member, or making a donation by clicking here on our secure CanadaHelps webpage.