A large riverside park with lots of amenities for families, including picnic shelters, ponds, playgrounds, athletic facilities, a boat ramp, a small amusement park for little kids that's open in the summer months, and an outdoor Shakespeare theater.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Iowa City's resident professional theatre presents both classic and contemporary theatre. Most popular are Shakespeare plays, which are performed each summer at City Park's Shakespeare Theater.
One of the oldest museums west of the Mississippi, this place has many well-crafted displays of taxidermy figures, prehistoric artifacts, and exhibits on Iowa's geology and ecology, as well as the state's Native American cultures. Among the highlights of the museum are a reconstruction of a giant Ice Age sloth, a complete whale skeleton, and an extensive Bird Hall with over a thousand birds on display, including a marvelous cyclorama (a 360-degree diorama) depicting bird life on a remote Pacific island. Gift shop.
Tour Iowa's first capitol building in the center of the Pentacrest. Inside you'll find three floors of exhibits linked by a beautiful spiral staircase within the building's rotunda. The original Senate and Legislature Chambers are open as well as a couple of galleries which host changing exhibitions. Gift shop.
formerly The Q, The Industry, and Blue Moose Tap House
Bar and live music venue, with local and national music acts. Most shows 19+.
An oft-noted local attraction, the Black Angel is a statue in Oakland Cemetery. Designed by famed sculptor Mario Korbel, the statue is 8.5 feet tall and depicts a dark angel of death guarding over a grave. The beautiful yet eerie angel has been a source of local urban legend since its construction. Many legends say that if anyone kisses the statue, he or she will be struck dead unless they are a virgin. Despite this, the Angel and her folklore have been embraced.