Interesting places to explore in Pittsburgh, from the Nationality Rooms to the incline

Most Pittsburghers can name the stadiums and the big museums without thinking. This guide is about the other places: a set of classrooms decorated by the city's immigrant communities, a museum that began in an old mattress warehouse, a cemetery that doubles as an arboretum, and an incline that has been climbing Mount Washington since 1877. All of them are inside the city, and all of them reward a second look.

The Nationality Rooms, Oakland

The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning holds 31 Nationality Rooms, each a gift from one of the ethnic communities that helped build Pittsburgh and planned by that community with international architects, artists and craftspeople. They are still used as classrooms on most weekdays. The first 19 surround the ground-floor Commons Room and were finished between 1938 and 1957; the rest have been added since 1987, some on the third floor. The university is marking the program's centennial through the 2025 to 2026 academic year, with a documentary, archival projects and features on rooms such as the Yugoslav and Hungarian classrooms.

This is a good season to go. The rooms are decorated for the holidays through January 16, 2027, and the 35th annual Holiday Open House is on Sunday, December 6, in the Cathedral's Commons Room. Guided tours are ticketed and booked through the Nationality Rooms website, and self-guided weekend visits are walk-in only through December 11.

Mattress Factory and the Mexican War Streets, Central Northside

Mattress Factory is a museum devoted to installation art, much of it made on site by artists who live in residence for weeks or months. Sculptor Barbara Luderowski bought the six-story brick mattress warehouse at 500 Sampsonia Way in 1975, and the museum was incorporated in 1977. Today its galleries spread across several buildings in the neighborhood, with visitors checking in on Jacksonia Street. Greer Lankton's room-sized installation has been on permanent view since 2009, and the current season includes work by Amanda Ross-Ho, Akea Brionne and Ting Tong Chang. Admission is ticketed, with discounts for Northside neighbors and veterans.

Step outside and you are in the Mexican War Streets, a federally designated historic district bounded by Brighton Road, Federal Street, North Avenue and Jefferson Street. Its rows of Victorian houses are best seen on foot, and walking the streets costs nothing. The Mexican War Streets Society, a nonprofit founded in 1969 to look after the neighborhood's character, runs the annual House and Garden Tour each September.

Commonplace Coffee keeps a café on Buena Vista Street in the neighborhood, with indoor tables and extra seating in its garden, which makes it an easy place to warm up between the museum and the walk.

Allegheny Cemetery, Lawrenceville

Founded in 1844, Allegheny Cemetery covers 300 acres on Butler Street and is a certified arboretum as well as the resting place of more than 137,000 people, many of them figures from the city's history. Its mausoleums, monuments and veterans section make it as much an outdoor history lesson as a place of quiet.

The cemetery doesn't offer guided tours at the moment, but its website has a full grounds map and self-guided tours, including a map of the graves of Pittsburgh's mayors and one of Civil War generals. The Butler Street Gate keeps seasonal hours. Afterward, head back down Butler Street to Wildcard, a Lawrenceville gift shop since 2009, for cards, art prints and its Pittsburgh is Home collection.

The Duquesne Incline, Mount Washington

The Duquesne Incline opened on May 20, 1877, and it is still carrying passengers between West Carson Street and Grandview Avenue. A group of local residents rescued and restored it in 1963, and it remains part of the city's transportation system. At the upper station there is a small museum of Pittsburgh history and photographs of inclines around the world, an observation deck looking out over the city, and a gift shop. Fares are paid in cash, with a change machine on hand, and Pennsylvania seniors with a qualifying transit card ride free.

Fort Pitt Museum, Point State Park

Inside Point State Park, at the tip of Downtown, the Fort Pitt Museum tells Pittsburgh's early story across two floors and roughly 12,000 square feet of exhibits. Look for the fort diorama, the wampum belts, an inkstand used at Fort Pitt in the 1760s and a copper still tied to the Whiskey Rebellion. Admission is ticketed. For breakfast before a morning Downtown, Pamela's Diner in the Strip District has been serving Pittsburgh since 1980.

Public art, free and everywhere

The city itself owns and cares for a large collection of public artworks, monuments and memorials, and its Public Art program publishes an online map and inventory so you can find them neighborhood by neighborhood. Some of it is recent. Since November 2023 the rebuilt Fern Hollow Bridge in Frick Park has carried John Peña's painted walkway graphics tracing the area's water history, and Carin Mincemoyer's Trail Meander, with benches and rock sculptures, follows the trail beneath the span. More is on the way through the Art in Parks project, in which eight artists and artist teams are creating pieces for Frick, Schenley, Emerald View, Riverview and Highland parks. Pull up the map before a walk and you may find you have been passing art for years without noticing.

Before you go

Hours, tour times and admission change with the seasons, so check each place's own page, listed in our sources, before setting out. Pair a ticketed visit with a free one, the Mattress Factory with the War Streets or the Nationality Rooms with a public art walk, and a single afternoon covers a surprising amount of the city.