Where the Bow and the Elbow meet
Calgary sits where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet, on the edge of the prairie with the Rocky Mountains in view to the west. The City of Calgary describes it as the third-largest municipality in Canada, serving about 1.5 million people.
A meeting place of rivers
Long before the city had its current name, the land where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet was a place to gather, hunt, trade and build community. The City of Calgary notes that the area has its own names in Indigenous languages: Moh-kins-tsis in Blackfoot, Wicispa Oyade for the Îethka Nakoda Wîcastabi First Nations, Guts-ists-I for the Tsuut'ina, and Otos-kwunee for the Métis.
Treaty 7 was signed on September 22, 1877, at Blackfoot Crossing, south of the Bow River near present-day Cluny. Its signatories included the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Nakoda (Stoney) and Tsuut'ina Nations, with the Crown represented by Commissioner David Laird.
The North West Mounted Police built a fort at the confluence in 1875. First called Fort Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 at the suggestion of Colonel James Macleod, after Calgary on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. The site is now The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland, a 40-acre park with a cultural centre that tells the stories of the area's Indigenous peoples, Treaty 7, the arrival of the NWMP and early Calgary.
The Canadian Pacific Railway reached Calgary in August 1883. According to the City's archives, Calgary was incorporated as a town on November 7, 1884, and as a city on January 1, 1894. In February 1988 Calgary hosted the XV Olympic Winter Games, the first Winter Games held in a Canadian city.
Land acknowledgement
The City of Calgary's land acknowledgement reads, in part: “We appreciate and acknowledge that we are gathered on the ancestral and traditional territory of the Blackfoot Nations who include: the Siksika (Seek-seek-ga), Piikani (bee-gun-nee) and Kainai (Gain-aa) First Nations; the Îethka Nakoda Wîcastabi (Ee-yith-ka Na-code-a Wee-chi-staw-bee) First Nations comprised of: the Chiniki (Chin-ick-ee), Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations; and the Tsuut’ina (Soot-tenna) First Nation. Calgary is also homeland to the Métis - the Otipemisiwak (Otay-pem-iss-a-wack) - and includes the Nose Hill Métis District and the Elbow Métis District, within the Battle River Territory. We acknowledge and give gratitude to the many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit who have lived in and cared for these lands for generations and call Calgary home.”
Stages, studios and the Stampede
Downtown's performing arts centre, long known as Arts Commons, became Werklund Centre on September 1, 2025. It is home to Alberta Theatre Projects, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Downstage, One Yellow Rabbit and Theatre Calgary, with venues including the Jack Singer Concert Hall and the Max Bell and Martha Cohen theatres. A new building and a redesigned Olympic Plaza are scheduled for late 2028.
A few blocks east, the East Village holds two of the city's newer landmarks. Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, opened on July 1, 2016. The Central Library, designed by Snøhetta and DIALOG, opened on November 1, 2018, and is built over the Red Line CTrain tunnel. Glenbow, the city's long-standing museum, is closed for renovation and is targeting a 2027 reopening in the JR Shaw Centre for Arts & Culture, with free general admission. Contemporary Calgary shows contemporary art in the former Centennial Planetarium near the Bow River.
The festival calendar is anchored by the Calgary Stampede, first held in 1912, which runs for ten days each July at Stampede Park. The Calgary Folk Music Festival has gathered on Prince's Island Park every July since 1980, and the Calgary International Film Festival runs in late September and early October.
Art is also out in the open. The City's public art collection includes more than 1,300 works, about 80 per cent of them on free public display. Two well-known pieces of civic design sit near the Bow River downtown: Jaume Plensa's 12-metre sculpture Wonderland on the plaza of The Bow tower, and Santiago Calatrava's red Peace Bridge, a walking and cycling bridge that opened in 2012.
Parks, rivers and mountains
Fish Creek Provincial Park runs about 19 kilometres east to west across south Calgary. At roughly 1,355 hectares, Alberta Parks describes it as one of the largest urban parks in Canada. It borders several of the city's lake communities, including Lake Bonavista, Midnapore, Sundance and McKenzie Lake, and it holds Sikome Lake, a public swimming area.
The City maintains about 1,000 kilometres of regional pathways and 96 kilometres of trails, many of them along the Bow and Elbow rivers. The Rotary/Mattamy Greenway, a 138-kilometre pathway, loops around the city. Prince's Island Park, a 20-hectare island park on the Bow, is a short walk from downtown, and Nose Hill Park in the northwest protects 1,129 hectares of native grassland.
In the southwest, the Glenmore Reservoir supplies nearly half of Calgary's drinking water and is a popular spot for non-motorized boating, with the City's Glenmore Sailing School on its shore. Swimming and power boats are not permitted. The Weaselhead Flats natural area lies where the Elbow River enters the reservoir, and Heritage Park Historical Village sits on its banks.
The mountains are close. The town of Banff, in Canada's first national park, is about 128 kilometres west by road, and Canmore is about 81 kilometres west in the Bow Valley. Kananaskis Country, roughly 4,000 square kilometres of provincial parks and recreation areas, lies to the west and southwest. Closer to home, Canada Olympic Park, a 1988 Olympic venue now run by WinSport, offers skiing and snowboarding in winter and mountain biking in summer.
Trains, trails, sunshine and steak
The CTrain light rail system has two lines and 44 stations. The Red Line runs from Tuscany in the northwest through downtown to Somerset–Bridlewood in the south, and the Blue Line runs from Saddletowne in the northeast to 69 Street in the west. In the south, Red Line stations at Anderson, Canyon Meadows, Fish Creek–Lacombe, Shawnessy and Somerset–Bridlewood serve the communities along Macleod Trail. In the northwest, Crowfoot and Tuscany stations sit beside Arbour Lake. A third line, the Green Line, is under construction between Shepard in the southeast and downtown, with the City listing an opening in 2031.
By car, Stoney Trail forms a 101-kilometre ring road around the city, completed in December 2023. Deerfoot Trail is the main north–south freeway, and Macleod Trail carries traffic from the south into downtown. Calgary International Airport (YYC) is about 17 kilometres northeast of downtown.
Calgary sits at about 1,045 metres above sea level, and the climate is dry and bright. Tourism Calgary notes that the city's winters are cold but sunny, with more sunshine than any other major Canadian city. Chinooks, the warm, dry westerly winds that come down off the Rockies, can bring sudden mid-winter thaws.
Food and drink reflect the province: Alberta beef is a point of local pride, and Tourism Calgary describes the city's steakhouses as a fixture. Seventeenth Avenue SW is lined with restaurants, bars and boutiques, Inglewood, at the meeting of the rivers, is known for its independent shops, and the Calgary Farmers' Market operates locations in the south and west of the city.