antiochian heritage museum

The Antiochian Heritage Museum and Library is located in a beautiful setting in the Laurel Highlands approximately 6 miles north of Ligonier. The museum offers changing exhibits relating to the heritage of Syria (Antioch), the Holy Land, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. On the day we visited, the main exhibit was the art of Leila Chokhel, an artist that grew up in the Republic of Georgia. On display were her drawings, paintings, and beautiful works made of fabric. The museum also included various historical icons and artifacts. Another exhibit was called Women with Icons. It is an ongoing, global project and has also been shown in Baltimore. The museum also included a Titanic exhibit which was quite interesting. We appreciated the curator providing us with an overview of the museum before we started to look at the exhibits on our own. This museum is definitely worth visiting if you are in the area.

As noted by other reviewers, this is part of the Antiochian Retreat Center, however, you can just stop by and view the museum without being a guest. They opened it just for us. Not being a part of this faith, we couldn't appreciate the items as much as we'd like, but the descriptions were helpful. It's best to take someone with you who knows this faith, to fully understand what you're seeing. As it's a free attraction in a beautiful setting, go even if you can't appreciate everything. The icons, a hallmark of the faith, are one of the main attractions. Also go one floor below; there's (as of Summer 2014) a Titianic exhibit of some items that were owned by the believers, and it makes a nice complement to the religious items upstairs. Once you are done with the museum you can also tour the chapel (again, it helps tremendously to know about what you're looking at, but the colors and icons are very stunning, and just grab a chair and soak it all in, if nothing else is going on in the chapel) and also a walking trail. Now it was a challenge for us to find the beginnings of the trail, even though we had a map. At first we went around the building, where the ducks are--but this isn't it. After several more minutes we decided to look carefully at the map and started down the hill, after making a left out of the museum (incidentally the museum doors were locked; we had to enter the museum from the inside of the complex). After a few wrong turns we discovered that the walking trail is indeed to the left of the museum, straight down the hill. Keep the football fields to your right. Go straight through the clearing of the trees--but DO have a map. The trail is not clearly marked all the way, but we did OK. Unfortunately the meditation stations aren't too kept up, but you can still make it meaningful. I'd like to go back, in another season, especially the fall as the scenery is great. More trail markers, especially pointing to the beginning, would be a huge asset. When on the trail look for colored string around the trees, this is common for marking trails. Don't walk if you're in a hurry, take your time.

We had a baby shower there and the place is very nice! Great food, beautiful scenery and pleasant atmosphere!

Antiochian Heritage Museum has so much! It's definitely a worthwhile and educational place. Great for families of all ages!

There was nothing to dislike. This museum provides a complete history of the Antiochian Orthodox presence in the United States.

Tucked away on a country road five miles north of Ligonier located on the grounds of the Antiochian Village Conference and Retreat Center is the Antiochian Heritage Museum. [You do not have to be a guest at the retreat center and there is no admission fee--but donations are gratefully accepted.] Standing and revolving exhibits in the museum focus on Orthodox Christians in the Middle East and their corresponding communities in the United States. Beautiful icons, encrusted vestments, and intelligent legends on exhibits. The curator/librarian of the research library is a delight to speak with. Make time for this when you're visiting Idlewild or Fort Ligonier.