Things You Can Only Find in Pittsburgh
Check out a few uniquely Pittsburgh things to do while you're in town!
Sure, you’ve visited cities before, but you’ve never seen anything quite like ours. Pittsburgh offers unique attractions you can only enjoy while you’re here, and we don’t want you to miss out. Here are a few of our favorite experiences unlike any other.
Magnificent Museums
Celebrate the legacy of one of Pittsburgh’s greats, Roberto Clemente, with a visit to the Clemente Museum located in Lawrenceville. Visitors often leave with bottles of wine, labeled in honor of the legendary Pirates right-fielder. Sample several varieties in Engine House 25's Arriba tasting room, a nod to Clemente's Puerto Rican heritage.
Discover the country’s largest bicycle museum and bike shop. Bicycle Heaven boasts nearly 2,000 bikes, vintage and otherwise, under one roof.
See magnificent exhibitions, take part in educational programs and concerts, enjoy fine dining, and take a stroll through 5.5 acres of lush gardens to experience art, history, and nature at The Frick Art Pittsburgh. Book a tour or be your own guide. New exhibits are always being added so you’ll never run out of things to see.
Engaging Events
Rev your engines! Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is the country’s largest vintage race event and only one staged on city streets. More than 150 vintage cars race through the city as 2,000 international show cars are on display.
Walk, run, bike, dance, socialize, and play during OpenStreetsPGH, a free event series that invites everyone to get up and move on some of Pittsburgh’s most iconic streets. Bring along friends and family to experience the best the city has to offer on a summer day and see how much fun Sundays in the city can be!
Educational Experiences
Take a self-guided tour of the Nationality Rooms located in the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. The 30 classrooms are designed to represent the culture of the various ethnic groups that settled in the region.
Explore Frick Environmental Center, a state-of-the-art space for hands on learning and environmental education. The center serves as a "living laboratory" for learning and was engineered to meet the Living Building Challenge and achieve LEED Platinum certification. Located at the edge of Frick Park, visitors may enjoy surrounding park woodlands, streams, meadows and trails.
Captivating Culture
Head to Josephine Street to see the most colorful steps in the world. With 77 step risers made to form a mosaic of a young woman overlooking the hillside neighborhood, trekking up the South Side Slopes has never been more beautiful.
Visit Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Jazz in its 350-seat music hall to learn more about the artistic and historical influence of jazz. Since 1987, many international masters of jazz including Joe Williams, Billy Taylor, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine and Ray Brown helped to build the MCG Jazz Archives to 300+ CDs worth of jazz history, and the performance series is among the oldest in the nation.
Walk past the “House Poem,” painted by dissident Chinese poet Huang Xiang who came to Pittsburgh through City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s exiled writer-residency program. This remarkable artwork became an instant landmark celebrating the freedom to write.
History & Religious Sites
Take a trip to church, or churches, to see some of Pittsburgh’s most historic treasures sprinkled throughout the city. The largest number of religious artifacts outside of the Vatican can be found at Saint Anthony Chapel, which is home to a record 5,000 Catholic relics. The walls and ceiling of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church are decorated with elaborate tempera paintings by artist Maxo Vanka (1890-1963) to tell the story of the Croatian peasants who left their native farmlands to seek a better life in the post-industrial U.S.
A magnificent array of 13 stained-glass windows light up the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, a project designed and installed by the famous Tiffany Studios in 1905. Finally, look for insignia of some of the world’s oldest universities carved on shields at Heinz Memorial Chapel.
Fabulous Food
From pierogies and Primanti's sandwiches, to Pittsburgh salads and something called a cookie table, Pittsburgh's history of innovation even shines in the food and restaurant scene. For a truly unique experience, pull up a chair and join the Galley Group for an unforgettable meal.
Smallman Galley is the first food hall restaurant accelerator of its kind in the United States. It is a restaurant “incubator” that gives four young chefs the space they need to develop their own concepts in this delicious urban eatery. The restaurant has been so successful that the group introduced a new location, Federal Galley, located in Pittsburgh’s north shore. With 250 seats (150 indoor; 100 outdoor), weekly live music, sports game watching parties and a full bar featuring 25 local craft beers on tap, you’re in for a treat.
Uniquely Unique
Pose for pictures at the beloved Mister Rogers’ sculpture—Tribute to Children—located on the North Shore near Acrisure Stadium.
Make your way through The ScareHouse, Pittsburgh’s scariest haunted house also named as one of America's Scariest Halloween Attractions by Travel Channel. One of the ScareHouse’s haunts dubbed “The Basement” requires visitors to be 18 or older and willing to sign a waiver. Whoa! (Open select days in September, October and November, 2019).
Look up at Pittsburgh’s newest skyscraper, The Tower at PNC Plaza, which opened in 2015 as PNC’s new headquarters. Incorporating state-of-the-art green technology, including a double-skin façade and solar chimney, the tower was designed to be the greenest office tower in the world.
