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The Auberge des Trois Rois

Detail from a 19th-century watercolour showing the corner of a square lined with several stone buildings. In the centre, the inn features a clock over which stand three figures, all topped by an enclosed belvedere.

John Ostell, “Montreal Customs House, view from the port – 1839” (detail), watercolour, City of Montréal, CA M001 BM099-1-D1-P238.

Welcome to the Auberge des Trois Rois! Its name came from the automata installed above the large clock on the façade, which rang their bells on the hour, every hour. You couldn’t miss them!

Thomas Delvecchio

Detail from a 19th-century watercolour showing the corner of a square with several stone buildings. In the centre, the inn features a clock over which stand three figures, all topped by an enclosed belvedere.

John Ostell, “Montreal Customs House, view from the port – 1839” (detail), watercolour, City of Montréal, CA M001 BM099-1-D1-P238.

The inn was founded by Thomas Delvecchio, a native of Lake Como in Italy, who arrived in Montréal at the end of the 18th century. His establishment thrived between 1810 and 1820. When he died in 1826, his son-in-law, Pierre Cajetan Leblanc, took over management of the inn, which went up in flames in the fire of June 1852.

Delvecchio left another legacy as well. In 1824, inside the inn itself, he opened Montréal’s first cabinet of curiosities: the Museo italiano. Visitors discovered natural history specimens and astonishing creatures—an eight-legged lamb, a two-bodied pig, a four-horned ram. The collection moved to Saint-Paul Street in 1833, under the management of Joseph Cajetan Leblanc (Pierre’s brother), before being sold at auction around 1847.