Casa Loma

Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival mansion built between 1911 and 1914 for the financier Sir Henry Pellatt, to designs by the architect E. J. Lennox. With 98 rooms, it is the closest thing the city has to a castle, and it is owned by the City of Toronto and operated by Liberty Entertainment Group.

A visit takes you through the rooms of the house and up the stairs to the towers. One of the more unusual features is the tunnel that runs from the main house to the Hunting Lodge and the stables, which are part of the visit. The house is set in five acres of gardens.

The house is a familiar film location. It has appeared in X-Men as the X-Mansion, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Chicago, and as Wayne Manor in the series Titans, so film fans may recognise some of the rooms.

The official site lists the castle as open daily from 9:30am to 5pm. Casa Loma also hosts events such as the Escape Series of puzzle games and seasonal workshops, and BlueBlood Steakhouse on site is a choice for a special dinner. Allow two to three hours for the house, towers, tunnel and stables at an unhurried pace; the towers involve stairs.

The story behind the house is part of the appeal. Pellatt founded the Toronto Electric Light Company in 1883 and was knighted in 1905, and the castle took three years and about $3.5 million to build. The name Casa Loma, already attached to the site, means Hill House. His fortune collapsed after the First World War and he left in 1924. The house was briefly a hotel from 1926 to 1929, when the Great Hall and Billiard Room were finally completed, and the city took it over in 1933 for unpaid taxes. The Kiwanis Club of West Toronto opened it to visitors in 1937 and ran it until 2011.

The castle suits families, history and architecture enthusiasts and anyone curious about Toronto's Edwardian era. The nearest subway stations are Dupont and St Clair West on the Yonge-University line, and the castle is a walk from either, so check the directions page before you set out.