Nationality Rooms at the Cathedral of Learning — Attraction in Pittsburgh

I visited the rooms twice, in 2018 self guided and again in 2023 with a tour. I enjoyed it a lot more on my own than with the tour guide. If you have critical thinking skills, these rooms will be very disappointing. The tour guide Grace was kind but she shared inaccurate details about the Syria-Lebanon room (claiming that the there were verses of the Quran on the wall, although upon closer examination it seemed to me like Arabic text, not Quran. It was very hard to read and the tour does not allow you to enter the room, only look from behind a glass, so that made it difficult to check). You also notice similar patterns of Americanization in the rooms, e.g. the Turkish room had a huge photo of Ataturk, the leader of political secularism. And although the rooms represent countries and designs that predates 1787, the Isr*li “heritage” room was confusing because Isral illegally occupied Palestine in 1945.. so what exactly is the “heritage” you are designing if your country did not exist until 150+ years later? A Palestine room would be stunning 🥰 the best room was the Africa room although very sad that they grouped an ENTIRE continent in one room.. anyway, the nationality rooms are a solid reflection of the way americans see the world and what they prioritize and value, so if that does not resonate with you, feel free to skip the tour and enjoy the pictures or visit...

This was truly an inspirational experience. Our guide Abby was so knowledgeable and interesting! There are 31 rooms. For our 90 min tour, we saw 12 of them. She asked if there were certain ones we wanted to see, and made her own recommendations as well. I'm not sure what happened with other reviewers, but we absolutely got to go into the rooms and even sit in the chairs. She also explained the committee process and their fundraising process - including their decision making on what goes in to the rooms. Previous reviewers missed out on that info - that's too bad. My favorites were the German room for their stained glass windows and the Swiss room for their purposefully "mistake-included" murals on the ceilings (the quill for the writing on the slate board was especially funny). We definitely want to come back so we can see more of the rooms and get the details from Abby that we might miss if we just did a self-guided tour. And, at only $10, it is an...

Highly recommended! It’s one of the most impressive places in Pittsburgh! Be advised that you need to book a guided tour in advance. You should fill out a reservation form online and in 30 min you’ll receive a confirmation letter by email. Payment will be done on arrival at the gift shop inside the Cathedral of Learning. Also it is better to visit the place on weekends when there are no students in the building. The Nationality Rooms are real classrooms at the same time, so you won’t be able to enter the room if there is a class in there. Also be advised that you won’t be able to see all 31 Nationality Rooms because the tour takes 1,5 hour only. When the tour starts your guide will ask you which rooms would you like to see, so check the university website and make your preferences before the visit. In my opinion, the most impressive ones are German, Austrian, Ukrainian, Syria-Lebanon...