Top historic sites in New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially the Met, is the largest art museum in the United States. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan"s Upper East Side, is by area one of the world"s largest art galleries. A much smaller ...Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment center, and neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. One of the world"s busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world"s entertainment industry. Times Square is one of the world"s most visited tourist attractions, dra ...Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. The building has a roof height of 380 m and stands a total of 443.2 m tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building stood as the world"s tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following the latter"s collapse in 20 ...National September 11 Memorial & Museum
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum commemorates the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. It is operated by a non-profit institution whose mission is to raise funds for, program, and opera ...The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world. MoMA"s collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photog ...St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick"s Cathedral was constructed starting in 1858 to accommodate the growing Archdiocese of New York and to replace St. Patrick"s Old Cathedral. Work was halted in the early 1860s during the American Civil War; the cathedral was completed in 1878 and dedicated on May 25, 1879. The archbishop"s house and rectory were added in the early 1880s, both by James Renwick Jr., and the spires were added i ...New York Stock Exchange Building
The New York Stock Exchange Building (NYSE Building) is a structure in the Financial District of Manhattan, serving as the headquarters of the New York Stock Exchange. It is composed of two connected structures occupying two-thirds of the city block bounded by Wall Street, Broad Street, New Street, and Exchange Place. The central third of the block contains the original structure at 18 Broad Street, designed in the neocla ...Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her h ...Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is an American military and maritime history museum in New York. The museum showcases the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, the cruise missile submarine USS Growler, a Concorde SST, a Lockheed A-12 supersonic reconnaissance plane, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. On the lower deck there is also a reproduction of a World War I biplane. The museum opened in 1982 at Pier 86 ...Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It was also the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its opening, with a main span of 486.3 m and a deck 38.7 m above mean high water. The span was originally called the New York and Brookl ...St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel, built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan, and one of the nation's finest examples of Late Georgian church architecture. A chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church, St. Paul's was built on land granted by Anne, Queen of Great Britain. Construction on the building's main body began in 1764 and was completed in 1766. The church's spire was added between 1794 and 1796. Built ...New York City Hall
New York City Hall is the seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park. Constructed from 1803 to 1812, the building is the oldest city hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as the office of the Mayor of New York City and the chambers of the New York City Council. While the Mayor"s Office is in the building, the staff of thirteen municipal ag ...Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in the Turtle Bay neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan. At 319 m, it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework, and was the world"s tallest building for 11 months after its completion in 1930. Originally a project of real estate developer and former New York State Senator William H. Reynolds, the building was constructed by Walter Chrysl ...Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum located at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. The museum was established b ...Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups. C ...Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown in 1923 to preserve and present the history of New York City, and its people. The red brick with marble trim museum was built in 1929–30 and was designed by Joseph H. Freedlander in the neo-Georgian style, with statues of Alexander Hamilton and DeWitt Clinton by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman fac ...Fort Jay
Fort Jay is a coastal bastion fort and the name of a former United States Army post on Governors Island in New York Harbor. It was built in 1794 to defend Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes. From 1806 to 1904 it was named Fort Columbus, presumably for explorer Christopher Columbus. Fort Columbus played an important role in the military life of New York City as the largest army post defending the city. The ...Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Kraków Cloth Hall
The Cloth Hall in Kraków dates to the Renaissance and is one of the city's most recognizable icons. It is the central feature of the main market square in the Kraków Old Town (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978).
The hall was once a major centre of international trade. Traveling merchants met there to discuss business and to barter. During its golden age in the 15th century, the hall was the source of a variety of exotic imports from the east – spices, silk, leather and wax – while Kraków itself exported textiles, lead, and salt from the Wieliczka Salt Mine.
Kraków was Poland's capital city and was among the largest cities in Europe already from before the time of the Renaissance. However, its decline started with the move of the capital to Warsaw in the very end of the 16th century. The city's decline was hastened by wars and politics leading to the Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century. By the time of the architectural restoration proposed for the cloth hall in 1870 under Austrian rule, much of the historic city center was decrepit. A change in political and economic fortunes for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ushered in a revival due to newly established Legislative Assembly or Sejm of the Land. The successful renovation of the Cloth Hall, based on design by Tomasz Pryliński and supervised by Mayor Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz, Sejm Marshal, was one of the most notable achievements of this period.
The hall has hosted many distinguished guests over the centuries and is still used to entertain monarchs and dignitaries, such as Charles, Prince of Wales and Emperor Akihito of Japan, who was welcomed here in 2002. In the past, balls were held here, most notably after Prince Józef Poniatowski had briefly liberated the city from the Austrians in 1809. Aside from its history and cultural value, the hall still is still used as a center of commerce.
On the upper floor of the hall is the Sukiennice Museum division of the National Museum, Kraków. It holds the largest permanent exhibit of the 19th-century Polish painting and sculpture, in four grand exhibition halls arranged by historical period and the theme extending into an entire artistic epoch. The museum was upgraded in 2010 with new technical equipment, storerooms, service spaces as well as improved thematic layout for the display.
The Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art was a major cultural venue from the moment it opened on October 7, 1879. It features late Baroque, Rococo, and Classicist 18th-century portraits and battle scenes by Polish and foreign pre-Romantics.