Philadelphia holds more Renoirs than Paris and the largest Rodin collection outside France, alongside 4,000 murals painted on its rowhouse walls. Three days run from the Parkway's museum mile to Isaiah Zagar's mosaic labyrinths and Fishtown's music halls.
The 1928 Greek Revival temple on Fairmount holds 240,000 works: the world's largest Duchamp collection, Cézanne's Large Bathers, and a reassembled 16th-century Japanese teahouse. Open Thu–Mon 10:00–17:00, Fridays to 20:45.
Cinema magnate Jules Mastbaum's 1929 beaux-arts pavilion by Paul Cret holds 140 bronzes, marbles and plasters — the largest Rodin holding outside Paris. The Thinker guards the gate, The Gates of Hell the facade. Fri–Mon 10:00–17:00.
Albert Barnes' collection — 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 46 Matisses, “The Dance” mural — hung in his own dense ensembles mixing paintings with wrought ironwork and Pennsylvania furniture, replicated room-for-room in the 2012 Williams/Tsien building.
Alexander Milne Calder's 11-metre bronze William Penn crowns the tallest load-bearing masonry building on earth, finished 1901 after 30 years of work. A glass lift climbs to the 167-metre observation deck directly beneath Penn's feet.
America's first art museum and school, founded 1805. Frank Furness' 1876 Victorian Gothic building is a riot of polychrome brick, gilt stencilling and cast-iron columns; the galleries hold Eakins, Cassatt, Tanner and Charles Willson Peale.
Rafael Viñoly's 2001 glass barrel vault, 45 metres high, shelters Verizon Hall — a cello-shaped room lined in Makassar ebony seating 2,500 and home to the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2001. Free public tours leave from Commonwealth Plaza.
An 1863 medical cabinet of curiosities in Victorian walnut vitrines: Joseph Hyrtl's 139 skulls, the conjoined liver of Chang and Eng Bunker, the Soap Lady, and a 2.7-metre distended colon. Open daily 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:00.
The oldest opera house in America still in continuous use, opened 1857 and modelled on Milan's La Scala, with a brick-and-horsehair acoustic shell and a Vienna crystal chandelier over 2,500 seats. Opera Philadelphia and Philadelphia Ballet perform here.
Isaiah Zagar spent from 1994 onward covering half a South Street block in mirror shards, bicycle wheels, bottle bottoms and folk-art tile — roughly 280 square metres of mosaic labyrinth, tunnels and grottoes. Wed–Mon 11:00–18:00.
A working artist-in-residence studio since 1977 where Louise Bourgeois, Ai Weiwei, Virgil Abloh and Nick Cave produced textile and installation work. Five floors of galleries plus an archive of 6,000 objects; free admission, Wed–Sun.
Begun in 1984 as an anti-graffiti programme, Mural Arts has produced more than 4,000 works — the largest public art initiative in the US. Guided Center City walks cover a dozen murals including Meg Saligman's Common Threads at Broad and Spring Garden.
A mile of galleries, record shops, ceramics studios and bars in a former shad-fishing district. Johnny Brenda's horseshoe balcony above the bar books touring indie acts nightly, while Pizzeria Beddia and Wm. Mulherin's Sons fill the blocks around it.