Every year, people come to Nashville from all over the world–and with good reason. Beyond the usual tourism and nightlife found in most cities, Nashville offers visitors several unique attractions they won’t find anywhere else. Known as Music City USA, Nashville is a major hub of Country music and is home to the legendary Grand Ole Opry. The Opry had its humble beginning as a local radio program in 1925 and has since helped to launch the careers of Country greats like Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, Sr. The Opry has moved several times over the years, and visitors interested in this important piece of music history can not only visit the current Grand Old Opry House on the banks of the Cumberland River but can also see most of its former locations, including the former Hillsboro Theatre (now an avant-garde independent movie theatre called the Belcourt) and the historic Ryman Auditorium.
Art and history are also very important to Nashville. Visitors to Nashville are often awed by the Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the ancient temple in Athens, standing at the center of Centennial Park. The Parthenon was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition and was original made of plaster, wood, and brick, though it was remodeled in concrete in the 1920’s. During the summer months, many local theatre companies stage free performances of classic Greek plays on the steps of the Parthenon. Inside, the Parthenon is an art museum hosting a permanent collection of nineteenth and twentieth century American works, as well as many temporary collections. The most breath-taking sight within the Parthenon, however, is the forty-two foot tall statue of Athena, a replica of the ancient Athena Parthenos statue created in 1990 by artist Alan LeQuire.
A few miles east of downtown lies the Hermitage, the plantation home of former President Andrew Jackson. Built between 1819 and 1821, before Jackson became the seventh president of the United States, the Greek revival-style building houses a museum both of Jackson’s life and the South of the antebellum era. In the Hermitage garden, modeled after English gardens of the nineteenth century, lies the Greek-columned, copper-domed tomb of Jackson and his wife. The Hermitage is the fourth most visited presidential residence in the nation, behind the White House, Mount Vernon, and Monticello.
Though the popular Opryland USA theme park was shut down in 1997, the famous Opryland Hotel is still in operation and caters to millions of tourists every year. Now known officially as the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, the Opryland Hotel is the largest non-casino hotel in the world. It boasts a total of 2,881 rooms, several giant ballrooms, and three atria filled with trees, tropical plants, waterfalls, and an artificial river that can be toured by flatboat. Several hundred of the rooms have balconies that overlook the atria, giving guests a tropical paradise view all year round. Visitors need not be guests of the Hotel in order to enjoy its vast, exotic atmosphere–a large portion of the Hotel’s daily visitors are walk-ins who simply want to take in the shops, dining, and scenic views.
There are dozens of other attractions in Nashville that attract millions of visitors every year-the Nashville Zoo, Fort Nashboro, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the General Jackson Showboat, the Wildhorse Saloon, and many others keep visitors returning, making Nashville one of the most popular tourist destinations in the South.
