The Pennsylvania State Capitol is one of the most architecturally impressive state capitol buildings in the United States. Completed in 1906 and designed by Joseph Huston, it is a full Beaux-Arts composition with a dome modelled on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, rising 52 metres and covered in terracotta tiles. The interior is extraordinary: the rotunda is decorated with mosaics designed by Edwin Austin Abbey and murals by Violet Oakley, the grand staircase uses marble imported from four countries, and the legislative chambers are panelled in oak and hung with more paintings than most art museums.
Free guided tours run daily and last about an hour. They cover the rotunda, the Senate and House chambers, the Supreme Court room, and the governor's reception room. The building is still a working legislature — tours sometimes navigate around committee meetings and floor sessions. The grounds and the Capitol Complex, with its additional government buildings, form an imposing civic quarter in the centre of the city.