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The Hermitage Museum

 
 

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The Hermitage Museum

The Hermitage Museum The Hermitage Museum One of the richest museums on earth, on par with the Louvre. Just 5% of the 3 million works of art it holds are actually exhibited. © Ludovic Maisant

It is one of the richest in the world, similar to the Louvres in Paris. Only 5 % of the 3 million works of art kept there are displayed, covering over two millenniums of art and history. Needless to say that you will need more than one day to go round the 400 rooms and the 7 miles of galleries of the tsars' winter palace built on the request of Catherine II in the heart of Saint Petersburg, on Nevski square. A true maze, the museum actually takes up five wings, all as sumptuous as the other: the Winter palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage, the New Hermitage and the Hermitage Theatre. The collections were mostly acquired by Catherine II who, well advised by French encyclopaedist Diderot, accumulated a great number of master pieces gleaned all across Europe. The museum contains in particular some impressive collections of the Italian masters (Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Veronese), Dutch (Rembrandt), and French (Poussin, David, Delacroix, Matisse, Renoir, Degas) masters. The museum, which welcomes nearly 3 million visitors a year, is also rich in Egyptian, Greek-Roman, and Middle-Eastern antiques. Do not miss the fabulous Scythian treasure.

Museums

Other reasons to go

  1.   Activities and leisure

  2.   Excursions

  3.   Monuments and walks