The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is one of the

most famous museums in the world. Together with world renowned museums like the

Louvre, the Metropolitan and the British Museum, it has a rich collection and is one of the most visited museums in

the world.Currently, the museum has a collection of more than three

million items. This is primarily paintings and sculpture,

applied art, and other works of art.

The history of the museum starts with a collection of works of art which Russian Empress Catherine II began to acquire privately. Initially the collection was housed in the Small Hermitage. In 1852 the huge collection was placed in the Imperial Hermitage.

Modern State Hermitage is a sophisticated museum complex. The main exposition of the museum occupies five buildings along the embankment of the Neva River in downtown St. Petersburg, the chief of which is considered to be the Winter Palace.

HISTORY

Hermitage was opened to the public in 1852 in the New Hermitage specially constructed for this purpose. Then it had the richest collections of ancient oriental monuments, ancient Egyptian, ancient and medieval cultures, pieces of art from Western and Eastern Europe, archaeological and artistic monuments of Asia, Russian culture VIII-XIX centuries. By 1880, over 50 000 people visited the museum every year.

In the Hermitage visitors can find the masterpieces from the Stone Age to the end of XX century.

Among them are the famous collection of Scythian gold and works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Tiepolo Caravaggio and Gainsborough , to name just a few.

HERMITAGE BUILDINGS

The five buildings of the Hermitage Museum, connected to each other at the Palace Embankment are:

The Winter Palace Small Hermitage, in a complex

that includes the North and South halls, and the famous Hanging Garden

great Hermitage new Hermitage Hermitage Theatre, which was

built over the partially preserved Winter Palace of Peter I

Also the complex of buildings of the State Hermitage includes Reserve House of the Winter Palace