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Manitoba Legislative Building

450 Broadway Winnipeg, MB R3C 0V8 Phone: 204.945.5813

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Visit Manitoba’s number one citizen, the beloved “Golden Boy,” who is perched atop the Manitoba Legislative Building . Completed in 1920, many consider Manitoba’s third Legislative Building to be the finest provincial Legislative Building in the country. Explore some of Manitoba’s rich history on the Legislative grounds, with various statues and plaques.

Guided tours are available at no charge in July and August on an hourly basis from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Fridays at 2 p.m. from September to June.  

Groups of 10 or more require advance tour reservations. To book an appointment for your group, please call 204.945.5813.

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21 Forks Market Road Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3C 4T7 1 855 PEG CITY (734-2489)

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Manitoba Legislative Building and Grounds - Self-Guided Tour

• 450 Broadway
• Winnipeg, MB R3C 1S4
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Manitoba Legislative Building

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Hermetic Code Tour of the Manitoba Legislative Building

Home › Book A Tour › Hermetic Code Tour of the Manitoba Legislative Building

Tour Details

Subject to availability

Contact us for pricing

Tour Includes:

• One and half hour guided Hermetic Code tour of the Manitoba Legislative Building
• Meeting with Frank Albo (if he is the one doing the tour)

For a great Theme Evening consider a Hermetic Code tour followed by a reception or dinner in the Manitoba Legislative Building itself. Several conference groups have done this as their final conference event.

Note – Tours can be customized to include a Frank Albo slide show presentation prior to the tour at a pre-determined location. Contact Heartland Travel

Do you ever wonder why the Manitoba Legislative Building has sphinxes on it? Have you wanted to learn about the symbols and hidden meanings behind the mystical architecture of the building? Join your guide for a tour of decoding the famous symbols and architecture that makes the building truly unique. Meet inside the building and begin your understanding of this magnificent building. Your guide will uncover trails of occult clues concealed in the buildings architecture including: hidden hieroglyphic inscriptions, numerical codes, and Freemasonic symbols so intelligently masked it has escaped historians and visitors for nearly a hundred years!

Is it possible that the Manitoba Legislative Building is really a conduit of magical power? Is this building’s location in the centre of North America a site for numerous earth energies? Come and find out for yourself!

TripAdvisor lists the Hermetic Code as Winnipeg’s # 1 tour and it is designated as a Signature Experience Collection by the Canadian Tourism Commission. In the last 3 years more than 10,000 persons have taken this tour. Creator Frank Albo is also the inspiration and subject of the Winnipeg Free Press’ best selling “The Hermetic Code” book.

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Well HELLO summer!!! Book your free tour online at https://gov.mb.ca/legislature/visiting/tour.html or send us an email at [email protected] . Tours must be pre-booked. Available July 2nd until Labour Day! Groups of 10 or more require a minimum of two week advance reservation during this period. Guided Tours of the Legislative Building are booked through the Visitor Tour Program. Please direct guided tour inquiries to the Visitor Tour Program Office for further information.

Guided tours provide an overview of the history of Manitoba and of the Legislative Building as well as insight into the legislative process. Please note that tours may be rerouted, shortened, or cancelled at any time due to Legislative Assembly activities and events.

Visitor Tour Program Office :

Monday to Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

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Hermetic Code Tour – Discovering Winnipeg’s Ancient Temple

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It was an adventure the likes of the Da Vinci Code, complete with ancient symbols, hidden clues, and secret society rituals. But with one big difference. This code-busting escapade was for real.

The unlikely setting was the Manitoba Legislative Assembly building in Winnipeg, its dome topped by the brilliant statue of the Greek god Hermes, commonly called the Golden Boy. It was on the front steps of the stately building that we met Don Finkbeiner of Heartland International Travel and Tours. Right from the start it was apparent that this wasn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill historical tour.

“This masquerades as a house of government,” said Don. “It’s actually a temple in disguise. Not just any temple; it’s modelled after King Solomon’s Temple.”

Our heads never stopped spinning for the next hour and a half, as he ushered us through a beguiling world of ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods, cosmology, numerology, alchemy, and the occult, liberally sprinkled with pagan, Christian, and Masonic imagery.

Uncovering the Secrets

On the surface, this is simply a fine government building with elaborate decorations. It was architectural historian Dr. Frank Albo who unlocked its secrets after ten years of painstaking research. It began when Frank, then a student at the University of Winnipeg, wondered why the legislature had statues of Egyptian sphinx on the roof. Looking further, he found the building packed with mysterious symbols that aren’t at first obvious.

The building was the brainchild of Liverpool architect Frank Worthington Simon. He was awarded the commission in 1912 by a committee that included Manitoba’s premier Rodmond Roblin and some senior members of government who were Freemasons, a benevolent society big on symbolism and secret rituals. Simon not only incorporated Masonic designs but added complex layers of ancient, pagan, and religious symbols, all intended for the betterment of society. His modus operandi was that if you want to hide something, hide it in plain view.

When Don learned of Frank Albo’s findings, he was immediately hooked. They teamed up to bring this intriguing story to the public through specialized Hermetic Code tours.

Room of Protection

As we entered the main hall of the building, we came face to face with two large bronze bison statues, symbolic of Manitoba. Or are they? Don explained that ancient temples always had a room of protection guarded by two large horned bulls to ward off evil. Use bison and most people don’t give it a second thought, but the guardians still fulfill their protective role.

Other symbols to battle evil adorn the room, including the face of Medusa with her hair made of snakes; just one glance at her would send evil packing. Eight cattle skulls form part of the decorations. Cattle skulls in a prairie setting might seem perfectly normal, but to Simon, this wasn’t a western motif. Back in the day when cattle sacrifices were in vogue, their skulls were hung as protective symbols.

Numbers and More Numbers

The extensive use of numbers as symbols of power is mind-boggling. The main hall is square, measuring 66 feet, six inches on each side. While 666 is associated with the Devil in the Bible, it also has a wider and more positive significance. To the Egyptians and Babylonians, 666 was the number of the sun-god, who ruled the 36 constellations in the sky. Add up the numbers from 1 to 36 and we get 666. Wearing an amulet with 666 on it was a way of covering your bases and currying favour from all the gods.

Number 13 is everywhere, from 13-foot-long bison to the grand staircase with three sets of 13 steps, 13 stones on the entrance archway, or 13 lights in every hallway. On one level, 13 represents Christ and the 12 Apostles, but it is also part of the powerful Fibonacci sequence – 3,5,8,13, etc., where any number is the sum of the previous two numbers. Divide any number by the number before it and we get an average of 1.618, known as the golden ratio, the most aesthetically pleasing proportion found in nature and used extensively in architecture. Groupings of fives and eights loom large throughout the building as well.

The Altar and Sanctuary

Don led us up the grand staircase, across the mosaic floor patterned after the ground floor of Solomon’s Temple, to the Rotunda (13 feet across, by the way). Here we looked down to the lower level to see the Pool of the Black Star, representing the second essential part of a temple — the sanctuary and altar.

Don referred us to an old guidebook to the building from 1925 that talked about sacrifices in a setting such as this in the ancient world, complete with an altar, white-robed worshippers, a victim, a curved knife, and blood trickling through the veins of marble. Heady stuff for a guide to a building where elected lawmakers work.

Christian Nuances

“Who came along 2,000 years ago and put an end to sacrifices in temples?” asked Don rhetorically. “It was Christ, so maybe we should see if there are any representations of Christ hidden in plain view.” Nothing was obvious, but by now we were beyond being surprised.

At the back of the rotunda, a huge mural portrays the First World War, which was raging during construction. It ostensibly shows the aftermath of a battle, with a badly wounded soldier being helped along by his comrades.

Simon hired muralist Frank Brangwyn from Brussels, who studied in the same Paris art school as Simon and was known for embedding Christian imagery in his paintings.

Once Don pointed out the details, it became obvious that the painting also depicts the Passion of Christ. The “wounded soldier” even has a nail hole in one hand. What looks like the long barrel of an artillery piece is also the pole of the cross. Hidden near the top of the painting is a representation of the Madonna and Child.

The Holy of Holies

The most important room in Solomon’s Temple was the Holy of Holies, built to house the Ark of the Covenant containing tablets with the Ten Commandments. Only the high priest could enter and only on special occasions. Don led us to the door of a little-used room off to the side, its entrance framed by two pillars using a design from Solomon’s Temple. A security guard unlocked the door and we peered into the reception room of the Manitoba government’s most important figure, its “high priest” if you will— the lieutenant-governor.

The fairly small though ornate square room measures 24 by 24 feet. The Holy of Holies was 20 by 20 cubits according to the Bible. Conversions are difficult because a cubit refers to the distance from a person’s elbow to the fingertips, so measurements can vary widely. However, the Masons used 14.4 inches as one of their conversions, so 20 cubits is 24 feet.

So far so good. The room matches the size of the Holy of Holies, but surely this improbable story will fall apart after this. We can clearly see the entire room. It would be quite a stretch to suggest that the Ark of the Covenant could be represented here. The Ark was said to be hidden behind a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet. This room does have blue curtains, which seemed promising at first, yet behind them we see only a window.

“That’s still where we have to look,” explained Don with a grin, “but outside where it’s hidden in plain view.”

Quest for the Lost Ark

We headed outside where Don described the many intricate designs and statues covering the building. The four elements of earth, air, fire, and water are represented. The front columns were built in exact proportion to the size of Hermes, using the golden ratio.

One statue is of General James Wolfe who whooped the French on the Plains of Abraham. A significant historical character, yet what is the connection with Manitoba? It turns out that his place of prominence has more to do with him being a notable Freemason – one of the earliest in Canada.

Then there are those curious Egyptian sphinxes that first set Frank Albo on his ten-year quest. It would be easy to dismiss them as mere decoration, since Egyptian motifs were all the rage a century ago. But when Frank went on the roof for a closer view, he saw the hieroglyphics on the lower part of the sphinx, translated as “The everlasting manifestation of the sun god Re, the good god who gives life”. The hieroglyphics aren’t visible from the ground, so they would have no purpose as decoration.

Finally we came to the east side of the building, where Don pointed to the sculpture just above the lieutenant-governor’s window. It portrays a box, usually described as a war chest, guarded by two warriors. Frank once crawled on the roof to measure the box, almost falling off in the process. He found that its proportions exactly match the Ark of the Covenant.

Why Winnipeg?

So why Winnipeg of all places for such an extraordinary building? In the early 20th century, this was the fastest growing city in North America, a boom town on steroids where everything was possible and only the best would do.

Winnipeg had more millionaires per capita than New York City and the commodities market was outselling the more famous exchange in Chicago. Winnipeg was poised to take its place among the world’s great cities, so a new legislative building would have to be a showpiece.

Leaving Nothing to Chance

Simon’s meticulousness in leaving nothing to chance in construction extended to public ceremonies as well. While the god on the legislature’s dome was called Hermes by the Greeks, the Romans knew him as Mercury and even named a planet after him. Lined up directly below the centre of the dome where Hermes, or Mercury, stands is the eight-pointed black star on the lower level. To the Babylonians, this was the Star of Ishtar, a fertility symbol associated with the planet Venus.

The ceremony to lay the northeast cornerstone, considered the birth of a building to Masons, took place at 5:30 on June 3, 1914, precisely when the planets of Venus and Mercury aligned over Winnipeg. The building’s official opening on July 15, 1920 was no accident either, planned for when the two planets again aligned over the booming city, this time with its brand spanking new legislative building, and of course, its ancient temple.

We’ll never look at a building the same way again.

For more details, see Heartland Travel or Tourism Winnipeg .

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Destinations Detours and Dreams

Winnipeg Self-Guided Tours

An index, guide, and overview of self-guided walking and driving tours in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

(Last updated November 2022)

While guided walking tours offer great opportunities to see a city’s highlights and hear entertaining stories, at times self-guided tours make more sense. You are not limited to specific time slots and can choose your own pacing. Linger at some spots, hurry past others, and even modify the route. In the midst of a pandemic, self-guided tours provide the chance to do a tourist-type activity in a physically distanced way. Where guided tours have shut down or been reduced because of the pandemic, self-guided tours offer an alternative.

I’ve assembled a list of self-guided walking tours, as well as a couple of driving tours, available for my home city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Winnipeg Loop Tour of Landmarks

The Loop , Tourism Winnipeg’s free curated walking tour of Winnipeg landmarks, contains almost 60 points of interest. The 9.5 route takes approximately 3.5 hours. You could easily break it into three separate shorter walks. I’ve written more about the Loop in my post Walking Tour Of Winnipeg Landmarks .

Tripvia GPS-Guided Audio Tours

The Tripvia app has several Winnipeg tours. The app, which works on iOS and Android devices, is free to download. Once downloaded, individual tours can be purchased for prices between five and nine dollars. Monthly subscription options get you unlimited access to all their tours, in Winnipeg and other locations.

Use your smart phone to guide you along the tour route. Recordings of tour information play when GPS detects you’ve reached the next point of interest. The option also exists to read the information in text form.

Currently available walking tours include a tour of the statues at the Legislative Building, a tour through Winnipeg’s theatrical history, a tour of Winnipeg’s wealthy beginnings, a haunted Winnipeg tour, and tours of Corydon and Osborne Village, The Forks, and Assinboine Park. A driving tour features highlights of south Winnipeg.

I’ve taken several of the Winnipeg tours. I found the app easy to use and the tours interesting.

Read my full review of Tripvia here .

Exchange District Tours

The 20-block Exchange District in central Winnipeg was the original centre of commerce and culture in the city. The National Historic Site boasts North America’s largest and best-preserved collection of heritage buildings. Today the narrow angled and cobblestoned streets house theatres, museums, galleries, boutique shops, restaurants, and cafés. Many Winnipeg festivals are centered in The Exchange.

During the summer months, the Exchange District Biz offers guided walking tours and food tours. The Exchange Biz recently created four short self-guided audio tours ranging from .25 and .7 kilometres in length. A map on the Exchange web site highlights the points of interest on each tour. Audio recordings for each tour provide navigation directions and information about the landmarks.. Stop and restart the audio as needed.

The four tours available are A City’s Beginnings, Early Winnipeg Lifestyles, Art and Architecture, and Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Take the tours individually or combine them in one longer loop tour. Find the tours here .

St. Boniface Historical Tour

St. Boniface, located across the Red River from downtown Winnipeg, is known as Winnipeg’s French Quarter. Its origins date to 1818 with the establishment of a Catholic mission. A community of Métis and French-Canadian residents settled around the parish.

The Société historique de Saint-Boniface offers a free historical St. Boniface walking tour that covers 19 points of interest. Highlights include a sculpture garden, author Gabrielle Roy’s house, the only French language university in western Canada, Louis Riel’s grave, and a museum housed in a former Grey Nuns convent. There is overlap with the St. Boniface portion of the Winnipeg Loop tour, but the St. Boniface Historical Tour covers more points of interest and provides more detailed information. Find the tour here .

Located at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in downtown Winnipeg, The Forks is a top city attraction. This 6,000-year-old meeting place remains a focal point for locals and tourist alike.

The Forks free audio tour, available in English and in French, takes you past points of interest on the site. You’ll learn about the significance of the junction of the two rivers, the design and construction of the Oodena Celebration Circle, the redevelopment of the abandoned rail yard into The Forks, and ancient artifacts uncovered on the site. The tour is narrated by Nigaan Sinclair, Curator of Indigenous History at The Forks and Professor of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. Get the tour here .

A couple of spots at The Forks become their own mini self-guided tour through history. The Wall Through Time, located along a pathway at the east end of The Forks Market Plaza, contains a retelling of historic evens that took place at The Forks throughout its history. Signage along the pathway in The Forks National Historic Site at the far east end of The Forks along the Red River documents years of human history at the site.

Public Art Tour

The Winnipeg Arts Council offers a free mobile app as a guide to artworks created within its Public Art Program. The app, available on iOS and Android platforms, features over 60 pieces of public art. A map shows their locations. Detailed information about each piece is available. Use the map on the app to create your own route to explore public art or simply use the app to find out more about art pieces you come across during other explorations. For more information on how the app works, read my post Exploring Winnipeg Public Art via an App . The app is available for download here .

Architecture Tour

The Winnipeg Architecture Foundation is a registered charity with a mandate to educate the public about architecture. They run events and special tours from time to time. They also offer two interactive tours you can take on your own.

The Archi10 is a free bilingual app, available for iOS and Android, that works as a self-guided tour. The app synchronizes with Winnipeg Transit Route #10. Route 10 passes by some of Winnipeg’s most significant buildings in the neighbourhoods of Wolseley, Downtown, and St. Boniface. When you near places of interest, narrators describe the building. The app features original music created specifically for these urban landscapes.

The Archi10 app is tailored for use on the bus, but could be used at other times. Use it to find information about a featured building or create you own driving tour mimicking the bus route. Download the tour here .

The QR Tour is based on decals containing QR (Quick Response) Codes that have been placed on a selection of significant architectural projects throughout Winnipeg. You scan the QR code with the camera on your smart phone. When the device has finished scanning, you are redirected to a webpage with information about the building. You can find more information about the QR Tour here . The page contains a map of featured buildings which you can use to create your own tour route.

I have not yet taken either of these tours, but I have taken a couple of one-time guided tours put on by the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation. Both were excellent.

West End Murals

There are murals located throughout the city with the West End containing the largest collection. The West End is a centrally located ethnically-diverse neighbourhood. The murals showcase the area’s history and diversity.

The West End Biz offers a guided mural walking tour in summer months, but you can also explore the murals on your own. There is a free self-guided audio tour covering some of the murals. A map on the West End Biz site shows the location of all the murals. Use it to map out your own route. The map contains the names of the murals, but very little other information. If you want to learn more about individual murals (e.g. artist, meaning of the murals, date of creation), go to the Murals of Winnipeg site .

I’ve taken the guided walking tour and explored some of the other West End murals on my own. Read more at Mural Tour in Winnipeg’s West End and More Winnipeg West End Murals .

Seven Oaks and Ross House History Walking Tours

Seven Oaks House , now restored as a museum, is the oldest home remaining in Winnipeg. It was built in 1851-1853 for John and Mary (Sinclair) Inkster, heads of an influential Métis family in the Red River Settlement. The museum’s self-guided The Roots of Our Community – The Seven Oaks Homestead walking tour takes you around the homestead and neighbouring community. The tour features thirteen points of interest. Inkster family history, agricultural history, Red River flood history, and information about the Battle of Seven Oaks, the bloodiest event in Manitoba’s history, are some of the information provided.

Ross House is a small community museum located in Winnipeg’s North Point Douglas neighbourhood. The museum offers a look a daily life in the 19 th century presented through the eyes of the Ross family, an influential Métis family. The Mapping the Point – North Point Douglas self-guided walking tour explores the history of the area around Ross House. The 10 points along this tour include a Monument to Ukrainian poet Markian Shashkevich, an 1862 example of post-and-plank architecture, the Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Centre Inc., Vulcan Iron Works which was one of North America’s largest foundries, and a Queen Anne Revival home built in 1899 that became a meat and grocery store in 1911.

You can both free tours here .

Upper Fort Garry

An old gate, park landscaping, sculpture, sound, light, and modern technology at Upper Fort Garry Provincial Park combine to showcase the history of what was once an important fur trading post as well as the history of Winnipeg. You can wander through this park/outdoor museum on your own and read the signage on the site. I’ve written about exploring Manitoba history at Upper Fort Garry . Download the free GPS-enable app (for iOS and Android) to guide your exploration of the site and learn some of its hidden stories.

On the GPSmyCITY app you’ll find self-guided walking tours for cities around the world. The app is free to download to iOS or Android devices. You make in app purchases for the tours you are interested in. Follow the route on the offline map downloaded to your phone or use the app’s GPS navigation to guide you from one stop to the next. Detailed information is provided about the attractions at the stops. You can also access the tour without using the app by requesting a printed PDF download for a small fee.

As of June 2021, there were five Winnipeg sightseeing walk tours on the GPSmyCITY app: Winnipeg Introduction, Museums and Galleries, Winnipeg Historical Churches, Saint Boniface, and Architecture. All tours take approximately two hours and feature between seven and eleven attractions. I haven’t taken any of the Winnipeg tours myself nor I have taken a GPSmyCITY tour in another city so I have no comments on tour quality and no tips to offer.

Historical Walking Tour of Wolseley

Wolseley is a neighbourhood in Winnipeg’s West End. It developed between 1905 and 1930 as a middle and upper middle class residential area. Beginning in the 1950s, as families moved and settled in Winnipeg’s suburbs, a number of the homes were subdivided into rooming houses. A rejuvenation and gentrification began in the 1970s and 1980s as large houses, a central location, and low real estate prices enticed young adults to the area. The new residents were largely artistic and socially active. The area became known as “The Granola Belt.”

Today, once again a desirable residential area, Wolseley is one of the most intact pre-1930 residential areas in Canada. Examples of the varied architectural features chosen by the original builders adorn the houses.

The Manitoba Historical Society lists over 80 points of interest on its self-guided walking tour of Wolseley. The web page contains fascinating information about each point, but no map is provided. Use the listed addresses to map your own route. Find tour information here .

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One Comment

Having never been there, most of what I know about Winnipeg comes from your blog Donna. I think my first walk would be the public art tour.

May 8, 2024

Winnipeg 21° C , Windy

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Manitoba byelection could be close race in normally strong Tory constituency

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WINNIPEG - The Manitoba legislature seat occupied by former premier Heather Stefanson has only been vacant for a few days, but interest is already growing among potential replacements.

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WINNIPEG – The Manitoba legislature seat occupied by former premier Heather Stefanson has only been vacant for a few days, but interest is already growing among potential replacements.

Stefanson resigned from the Tuxedo seat in West Winnipeg on Monday, putting an end to a 23-year political career that included just over two years as Progressive Conservative party leader.

Four people have already expressed an interest in running to be the Tory candidate in a byelection that, under provincial law, must be held within six months, the party’s president said.

“And we are looking at a date for a nomination … and obviously that date could be expedited should the government and the premier decide to call a byelection earlier than later,” Brent Pooles said.

One of the potential candidates willing to talk publicly Tuesday was Shannon Martin, who served nine years in the legislature until 2023. Martin said he was out knocking on doors in the Tuxedo area this week.

“I began literally last night,” Martin said.

The Tuxedo seat has historically been a stronghold of the Progressive Conservatives, but in last year’s provincial election, the NDP came within 300 votes of taking the seat as the New Democrats swept to power. The results were so close in Tuxedo, Stefanson was not declared a winner until two days after the election.

Premier Wab Kinew noted the closeness of that race on Tuesday.

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“I definitely wish I would have gone canvassing in Tuxedo,” he said.

Kinew did not say when he will call the byelection to replace Stefanson.

“We definitely are going to call the election sometime within the six-month period and make sure (Tuxedo residents) do get an active representative within the next half a year.”

A spokesperson for New Democratic Party headquarters was unable to say how many people have so far expressed an interest in running for the party.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2024.

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