Troy Hill: Rialto St. & More

Tucked away in the northside of the city of Pittsburgh is a quaint, homely neighborhood known as Troy Hill. There are countless wonders to explore in this town, and I was lucky enough to explore a good few of them.

The first location I managed to visit in Troy Hill was the famous Saint Anthony's Chapel.  As I briefly mentioned in my last post about the history of Troy Hill, Saint Anthony's receives its notoriety from housing the second-largest collection of Catholic Christian artifacts in the world (right after the Vatican in Rome, of course). Additionally, at least in my opinion, Saint Anthony's is one of the most beautiful churches that I have ever set foot in. 

My opinion about it purely comes from the fact that the stained glass windows and various other furnishings (especially the chandeliers) were some of the finest and most exquisite I've seen in any public space. What I found especially interesting was that, right as you walk in through the front doors of the chapel, there are life size vignettes along the walls on either side of you. These vignettes are meant to depict the Passion of Jesus Christ, and they do so with an artistic precision that is, at least I found it to be, utterly breathtaking. You can really feel the emotions of the characters, Christ not least of all, as you gaze at each vignette. 

The famous Catholic artifacts of Saint Anthony's were astounding to look at, as well. Their collection mainly consisted of bones and bone fragments that belonged to famous Christian saints and martyrs. One particlar artifact of this type caught my attention, and I stood looking at it behind its glass case for quiet a while. It was a skull that evidently belonged to a Saint George. I doubt it was the same George of legend that slayed the dragon, but it very well may have been. 

After my visit to the chapel, I ventured across the street to a quaint little gift shop known as the "Chapel Shop." Here, I found a vast and breathtaking assortment of religious souvenirs and merchandise: a great deal of it handmade. For instance, lined up and displayed along one wall toward the back of the shop were a series of hand carved wooden crucifixes. Each one was made from a different kind of wood, accompanied by cast metal figures of Jesus Christ that was attached to the front of them. My favorite one was one that was made from cherrywood, with a cast iron Christ figure. 

Sadly, I did not manage to get a picture of that crucifix, though it was very beautifully made. What I did manage to get a photo of, however, was probably my favorite thing in the shop by far. It was a porcelain doll of Pope Francis, dressed very accurately in his white robes and cap. The doll was a very good likeness of the Pope, too, and it was a very large piece. I don't know for certain how big it was, but if I had to estimate I would say the doll was around three feet tall. 

The gift shop portion of the building was on the first floor, the first thing that one sees as soon as they come into the Chapel Shop. Another thing that visitors might notice when they walk into the store is a wooden staircase leading up to the second floor. At first, I had no idea that it was allowed to be accessed by customers, but I soon found out that it actually was. As it turned out, on the second floor of the Chapel Shop was a museum with even more Christian artifacts as well as a pictorial display depicting the history of Saint Anthony's Chapel. 

Much to my own disappointment, I did not manage to get any pictures of the shop museum. However, while I was there I did speak with other museum-goers like myself. Their names were Lily and Duncan. I did not ask them their ages, but I beleived them to be in their early 20s, like myself. My conversation with them began when I noticed them examining the same piece I was looking at, which was a doll dressed in regal attire, with a crown and scepter. It, evidently, was meant to represent the infant Jesus Christ in king's robes. 

I had made a passing comment to Lily and Duncan about how beautiful the doll's bejeweled robes were. They agreed enthusiastically, especially Lily.

"It's really pretty. That's definitely what I like about churches and stuff is how beautiful the decorations are and things like that," she said.

I agreed with her about this and was curious to pick her and Duncan's brains more on the subject. I asked them if they had ever been to the shop or the chapel before.

"Oh, yeah. But it's been years since I've been back. Nice to see that it's almost exactly the way I remember it as a kid," Lily said.

"Same with me," Duncan added, "I think I was like two years old when I last went to the chapel with my grandma. Never been here before, though," he said, referring to the shop.

While my experiences at Saint Anthony's Chapel and the Chapel Shop were highly enjoyable, the most important part of my trip to Troy Hill (at least for me) was going to Rialto Street. Rialto Street is the location of what are known as the Art Houses. 

As I have alluded to in my previous blog post, the Rialto Street Art Houses are a series of buildings which are, essentially, life size art pieces that one can actually walk through.

Unfortunately, the Art Houses are extremely confidential pieces of property and, as such, I was not permitted to take any pictures during my guided tour of the one that I visited. 

My tour guide, in question, was a man named Michael. He took me and my group through a tour of the Darkhouse Lighthouse. As I briefly mentioned in my last post about Troy Hill, it is the newest of the series of houses on Rialto Street.

The Darkhouse Lighthouse was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before. As someone who's never been inside of an actual lighthouse, it was a very illuminating experience (no pun intended) of what maritime life is like. 

There are six different sections of the Darkhouse Lighthouse. You come to the first one by walking through a very dimly lit hallway made of wooden planks. Michael opened the door at the end to reveal a cellar-type of room with a staircase that led the viewer to stand in front of, what looked to be, a real lighthouse: at least the bottom-half of one. 

After that, you walk through the door of the lighthouse facade into a very bright room with a kind of ladder in the middle. Maritime objects are scattered on the floor of the room,: including anchors, newspapers, bottles, fossils, etc. 

"All the objects you see in this room were scavenged by the artists from beaches and seaside locations all around the world," Michael explained.

After that, our tour group ascended the ladder into what was probably my favorite room of Darkhouse Lighthouse. It was what I can best describe as a kind of bedroom or living quarters. I'd like to stress that this is not an accurate assessment, as the room was much more detailed and extravagant than I am making it sound. 

This is largely due to the stunning amount of detail that went into creating the room. It truly felt like I was inside somebody's private home. There was a crescent-shaped bed against the wall adorned with old-looking sheets and pillows. A table with a tea kettle and playing cards laid in the middle of the room just under the light fixture. A stereo sitting on a shelf played ambient seaside sounds, which really added to the experience. 

A great deal of symbolism was incorporated into the design of the room as well. This is due to the inclusion of three small windows that allowed viewers to gaze into three different spaces, all representing different times of the day. The first represented morning, and it was all white with no furnishings except very bright fluorescent lights. The following room was tinted orange to represent sunset. This and the third room, completely black inside to signify nighttime, had random assortments of objects in them.

After that, Michael directed our group to ascend another ladder into the penultimate room of the Darkhouse Lighthouse. This one was a kind of attic-like structure. It was very similar to the hallway that precedes the first room. The main difference, however, was the large blinding light in the center of the room. 

It was, as Michael attested to our group, a light that was previously used in an actual lighthouse. This was the sole feature of the room, for me, that made it my second-favorite out of the whole house. The way that it sparkled in a kaleidoscope-like way was very enchanting to me, almost hypnotic actually. 

After that, our group descended a staircase into a very creepy bathroom. There was detritus all over the floor and walls, with many of the furnishings being broken. Even more disturbingly, to the right-hand side of the sink, there was a locked door. One of the members of our group asked Michael where the door led to.

"Oh, that's the torture chamber where we put the people who don't behave during tours," Michael said.

He immediately started laughing after he said that, perhaps noticing how horrified many of us looked. This was something that I personally appreciated about Michael a lot. It's nice to have a tour guide who is not completely serious about their job. This was also one of many jokes Michael cracked throughout our tour, and his sense of humor kept all of us very entertained. 

Last, but absolutely not least, Michael led us through a different door which led outside into the backyard of the house. My group and I stood on a wooden patio that overlooked a giant field of very tall yellow grass.

"The grass is much greener during the spring and summer, but since it's winter, it's not so pretty looking," Michael explained.

The grass was far from the main point of attraction in the yard. Opposite from our group on the far end of the yard was a giant red cone emerging from the ground. I'm not sure if Michael mentioned exactly how tall it was, but I would estimate it to be at least 20 feet tall.

Quite a few people in my group told Michael that the cone looked like a giant garden gnome hat. To be honest, I thought that was literally what it was at first until Michael explained its purpose. I cannot accurately recall all of what he said, but it was apparently meant to act as an indicator of danger levels. That is, sailors relied on primitive devices like the red cone to be able to determine the safety of the sea level and the tides.

Regardless of my own inaccuracies, I can definitely attest that Troy Hill was one of the most interesting places I have been to this year by far. Saint Anthony's Chapel and the Art Houses of Rialto Street were truly a sight to behold, and I would absolutely recommend that as many people as possible witness it for themselves.