What can you see in the Hermitage?.

The State Hermitage Museum located in St. Petersburg is considered one of the largest in our country, as well as in the whole world. What to see in the Hermitage for a person who visits it for the first time? The answer is not so simple, because the Hermitage consists of five main buildings of the main complex, where the museum's exhibits are located, four buildings outside the Palace Embankment, and two outbuildings. The table lists all the buildings of the Hermitage, including service buildings, indicating the years of construction and the architects who created them.

Buildings of museums on the Palace EmbankmentYears of constructionArchitect
Winter Palace1754-1762B. F. Rastrelli
Small Hermitage1764-1775Zh. B. Wallen-Delamot, Yu. M. Felten, V. P. Stasov
The Great Hermitage1771-1787Yu. M. Felten
Hermitage Theater1783-1787G. Quarenghi
New Hermitage1842-1851Leo von Klenze, V. P. Stasov, N. E. Efimov
Buildings outside the Palace Embankment
Menshikov Palace1710 -1720J.-M. Fontana, I.-G. Schedel
Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory1844S. G. Bernikov, I. Grigoriev
Eastern Wing of the General Staff1819-1829K. I. Rossi
Restoration and Storage Center "Staraya Derevnya"1990-2006Trofimovs' Architectural Workshop
Service buildings
Reserve House of the Winter Palace1877-1878N. Becker
Hermitage garage1911N. I. Kramskoy

The beginning of the Hermitage

The famous museum began as a personal art collection of Empress Catherine II. The creator of the Russian version of the ideology of "enlightened absolutism" needed the approval of the first part of this ideologeme in the eyes of Europe, which would retouch the second part (absolutism), which looked very unpresentable. For a long time, the collection was available only to the elite, fully justifying its name: "Hermitage" in French is a place of solitude. The opening to the general public took place only in the middle of the 19th century.

In 1852, at the end of the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, in a specially constructed building of the New Hermitage, the entire rich collection accumulated by that time was publicly exhibited: exhibits from ancient (Egypt, East, antiquity) and medieval history, as well as Russian monuments from the 8th century. This laborious technique has not been used anywhere else in the world in such volumes.

The decoration of Alexandra Feodorovna's living room took 133 pounds of malachite - more than 2 tons! This is not only wall decoration, but also vases, floor lamps, candelabra, tabletops. The hall is rightfully considered the pearl of the Hermitage. It is located on the second floor of the northwestern part of the Winter Palace. In 1917, in the interval between the February and October revolutions, it hosted meetings of the Provisional Government.

The treasures of the Hermitage are enormous, and it is hardly possible even to simply list the names of famous and great artists and sculptors whose masterpieces are included in its exposition. It will be interesting for both history lovers and art lovers. Just before visiting this greatest Russian museum, you need to draw up a tour plan. Otherwise, with all the abundance of exhibits, it will be difficult for you to find what you need.

.