The Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage Museum comprises five edifices: the Old Hermitage, the Small Hermitage, the Large Hermitage and the Hermitage Theatre. The main building which houses the best part of the Hermitage collection is the Winter Palace, the former residence of all the Russian Emperors but Paul. Rastrelli designed it at the close of the Empress Elizabeth’s reign, in 1754-1762. Hurry as he did, Rastrelli had not completed the construction when Elizabeth died and she never saw the dazzling Baroque Palace with all the flamboyant splendour of its decoration.

The art collection of the Hermitage museum dates back to 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a vast collection of contemporary French paintings and placed it in the two-storey pavilion adjusted to the Winter Palace by Velten in 1764 –1775. The collection expanded so rapidly that in 1774 Catherine ordered to construct the Large Hermitage. In 1792 Quarenghi extended the Large Hermitage to house the famous Raphael Loggias, 18th-century copies of the original frescoes in the Vatican.

The Hermitage Museum happened to have a dramatically eventful history. During the First World War Nicolas II turned it into a hospital. The priceless interiors, including the Armorial Hall and the Memorial Hall of Peter the Great, served as operating-rooms, wards, laboratories, X-ray rooms or medical stores. On the eve of the Revolution it was occupied by the Provisional Government. On October 25,1917 Bolsheviks occupied the Palace. The Hermitage was nationalized and turned into a state museum to prevent the priceless collections from the Red thugs. In the course of the World War II the Palace was damaged by Nazis’ air-strikes. However, the Hermitage collections had been evacuated before the siege began and the museum was opened as soon as the War was over.

Now the Hermitage collections reaches to over 3 millions of items representing the world culture and art development from the Stone Age to the 20th century. The department of Prehistoric Art is the largest in Russia. It introduces over two million ancient and early medieval items discovered on Russian territory. The collection comprises objects from the Palaeolithic Age which are estimated to be over 20,000 years old, to the Iron Ages, the materials from the Maikop burial mound with the priceless gold and silver vessels of the Bronze Age, the unique items from Bosporan necropolises and gold jewellery. The department of Antiquity introduces the world-famous collection of Greek and Italian painted vases, the huge collections of Greek gold and antique sarcophagi which is one of the richest in the world.

The Western European Art collection occupies 120 rooms and covers the whole development of the Western European painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages to our days, including such chefs d'oeuvre as The Benois Madonna and Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci, The Holy Family and Madonna Conestabile by Raphael, works by Titian, including Danae. The Hermitage collection of drawings and watercolours is estimated to be the largest in the whole Europe. It includes works by Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin and Edgar Degas. One of the latest and most valuable acquirements of the museum was the unrivalled collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century Impressionists and Post-Impressionist artists, such as Monet, Renoir, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Marquet, Bonnard, Matisse and Picasso.

The Hermitage Arsenal collection represents many precious items of Russian, Western European and Oriental arms and armour from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. The Oriental Art collection includes over 180,000 paintings, sculptures and items of applied art, covering the territories of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Byzantium. The Numismatics department has over a million of items, most of them coins: ancient, including the priceless staters from Lydia and 10-drachma pieces from Syracuse, oriental, Russian and Western European. The Hermitage Golden Rooms are famous world-wide for its unique collection of Russian, European and Oriental gold and silverware. The collection was founded by Catherine as the Treasure Gallery and has since grown rapidly to become one of the largest in the world.

The Russian Culture Department shows the whole Russian history from its very beginning, reflecting each epoch in detail. There are many archaeological finds from the Kievskaya Rus of 10th century, which exemplify the culture and life in the Ancient Russia. The gem of the department is the wonderful silver shrine of Alexander Nevsky which weighs over a tonne and a half of pure silver. Especially numerous is the collection that represent the times of the Russian last Emperor Nicolas II. Many apartments remained just like they used to be during his reign. The interiors, pieces of furniture, evening dresses and everyday clothes show the way the Emperor and his family lived.