10 Best Sights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Set on a hill in a majestic 1928 building modeled after Greek temples, the city's premier cultural attraction is one of the country's leading art museums, with permanent collections focused on European, American, and Asian art. The museum’s east entrance is the site of the “Rocky steps,” with people running up the 72 steps immortalized in the movie Rocky and lining up at street level for photos with A. Thomas Schomberg’s Rocky statue. A massive redesign by architect Frank Gehry, completed in 2021, added exhibition space and made navigating the 200-gallery museum more pleasant. Diana, the iconic gilded sculpture of the goddess by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, graces the Great Stair Hall. Expanded first-floor galleries are dedicated to a more inclusive narrative of early American art and to contemporary art. From spring 2026 through summer 2027, the museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts will present A Nation of Artists, a two-museum show that will celebrate American art and include rarely seen works owned by the Middleton family. The European art (1850–1900) collection makes the most of the strong impressionist holdings, and other European collections contain modernist works by artists such as Brancusi, Braque, Matisse, and Picasso. Famous paintings include Van Eyck's St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, van Gogh's Sunflowers, and Cézanne's The Large Bathers. The museum also has the world's most extensive collection of works by Marcel Duchamp (Nude Descending a Staircase) and fine works by 19th-century Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins.  The Asian art galleries present some spectacular structures moved from around the world, such as a 17th-century Chinese palace hall and a Japanese teahouse. Children like the arms and armor collection, and the 1-acre outdoor sculpture garden has contemporary works. Museum visitors can eat in the café or in the intimate, upscale, Gehry-designed Stir Restaurant (reserve ahead), which focuses on seasonal and regional fare. Friday evenings in the museum feature live music, drinks, and light bites.

One man's collection and now a Parkway treasure, the Barnes Foundation displays some of the most fabled paintings of impressionist, postimpressionist, and modern art—181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 7 van Goghs, 6 Seurats, and plenty more—in a handsome, modern limestone-and-glass museum. Highlights include Cézanne's The Card Players, Georges Seurat's Models, van Gogh's The Postman (Joseph-Etienne Roulin), Monet's Studio Boat, Matisse's La Danse II triptych mural, Renoir's The Artist's Family, and Picasso's Acrobat and Young Harlequin. The collection was amassed after 1912 in Merion, Pennsylvania, by Dr. Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951), who made his fortune as co-inventor of an antiseptic; he conceived the foundation as an educational institution.

Barnes wanted to help people "see as an artist saw," and to do this he created each gallery wall as an "ensemble" that reflected visual relationships: a Picasso could hang side by side with an African sculpture, and below an Old Master sketch and an iron door hinge.  Works have no labels, but a free mobile guide, accessed via smartphone, provides information. Barnes's will decreed that nothing in the displays could be changed, so when the collection moved to the Parkway in 2012, the galleries were re-created within a structure that also has rooms for special exhibitions and a high-ceilinged court with a café. The pretty, pricier Garden Restaurant, with indoor and outdoor (in season) seating, serves delicious modern American fare.

The nation's first art school and museum (founded in 1805) displays a notable collection of American art that ranges from the Peale family and Gilbert Stuart to Andrew Wyeth and Faith Ringgold. Fox Hunt by Winslow Homer and The Artist in His Museum by Charles Willson Peale are two famous works. PAFA's most prized work, The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins, depicts Samuel D. Gross, a celebrated 19th-century surgeon, presiding over an operation; the masterwork is co-owned with the Philadelphia Art Museum. The striking 1876 Gothic revival building was designed by Philadelphia architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt with a multicolor stone-and-brick exterior and an interior in rich hues of red, yellow, and blue; in time for America's 250th birthday, there's a new installation from its permanent collection. Until then, changing exhibitions in different mediums are presented in the adjacent modern Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building, an 11-story facility that holds classrooms and studios for continuing education and certificate students. Between the two buildings is the pedestrian Lenfest Plaza featuring Paint Torch, a 51-foot-tall sculpture of a paintbrush by Claes Oldenburg. The Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Art Museum may get more visitor attention, but art lovers will appreciate this special place.

This small jewel of a museum, administered by the Philadelphia Art Museum, holds one of the biggest collections outside France—almost 150 bronzes, plasters, and marbles—of the work of sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Movie theater owner Jules Mastbaum acquired the works to found the museum, which opened in 1929. The building and grounds, designed by architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber, honor Cret's idea that inside and out offer a "unified setting" for the presentation of sculpture. Entering the museum, you pass through a peaceful courtyard garden with sculptures to reach Rodin's The Gates of Hell—a 21-foot-high sculpture with more than 100 human and animal figures. The museum rotates works in thematic shows every two years or so but may include major works like The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, Balzac, and Eternal Springtime.

Focused on art and nature, this lively new Parkway cultural destination opposite the Barnes Foundation includes a building by architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron for works by sculptor Alexander Calder (1898–1976) and naturalistic gardens by landscape designer Piet Oudolf. Extensive public programming, from performances to wellness activities, is planned, and galleries and outdoor spaces present rotating displays of art from the Calder Foundation. The third generation of Calders whose creations can be seen in Philadelphia, Alexander Calder is noted for his mobiles but also produced stabiles (static sculptures), wire sculptures, oil paintings, jewelry, and other works.

The realization of founder Samuel S. Fleisher's open invitation "to come and learn art," this school and gallery has offered classes, some tuition-free, since 1898. Fleisher presents regular exhibits of contemporary art as well as works by faculty and students. The Memorial consists of several connected buildings, including the Sanctuary, a Romanesque Revival Episcopal church designed by the architectural firm of Frank Furness and featuring European art from the 13th to the 15th century. A satellite building at 705 Christian Street is dedicated to works on paper.

This museum, part of the University of Pennsylvania, has established a reputation for identifying promising contemporary artists and championing them at critical points in their careers. Among the creators who have had exhibitions at ICA and later gone on to international prominence are Andy Warhol (his first-ever solo museum show, in 1965), Laurie Anderson, Robert Mapplethorpe, and surveys of less famous but important artists such as Jamaican Mavis Pusey's geometric abstractions. ICA is dedicated to the one or two exhibitions they show at a time. Exhibitions are long-running but closing between them is typical, so check what's up before you go.

This stunning destination for the international wood-art community cultivates and promotes education and creative expression of the form. Rebranded in 2023 to include the word "museum" in its name, this space features a two-floor, light-filled museum showcasing more than a thousand beautiful pieces of artwork all made from wood. The gift shop is stocked with gorgeous handmade works, some by accomplished artists whose works are on display, including those who are a part of the organization's annual Windgate Wood Arts Residency Program (WARP).

This 1863 three-floor town house and an adjoining building are filled with Persian rugs and 18th-century British, French, and American antiques (plus an entire living room that once belonged to poet Marianne Moore), but the real treasures are the artworks, books, and manuscripts here. Amassed by Philadelphia collectors Philip H. and A. S. W. Rosenbach, the collection includes paintings by Canaletto, Sully, and Lawrence; drawings by Daumier, Fragonard, and Blake; book illustrations ranging from medieval illuminations to the works of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are; the only known copy of the first issue of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack; and the library's most famous treasure, the original manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses. The Rosenbach celebrates "Bloomsday" on June 16 with readings from Ulysses by notable Philadelphians. The library has more than 130,000 manuscripts and 30,000 rare books.

On the far side of Chestnut Hill, on the slope leading toward the suburbs, this Philly artist–centric museum focuses on 19th- and 20th-century eastern Pennsylvania art. The permanent collection features mid-1900s woodcuts and a number of 19th-century Pennsylvania landscapes. The largely contemporary special exhibitions are often very engaging, along with live jazz and classical music, movie nights, and workshops. There's a popular, if overpriced, haystack maze each October outside.