Historical things to know about The Hermitage Museum Tour in St Petersburg

The Hermitage was founded in 1764 as a private museum of Russian tsarina, Catherine The Great.

Catherine was never interested in painting but to have a collection was a matter of prestige- all European monarchs had their own ones, why should she be an exception?

Each next Russian tsar contributed to the treasures and by the end of the XIX century it became one of the best in the world!

In 1837 Royal collection became available for the wide public: a special building, New Hermitage, was created by order of Nicholas I

The 1917 October Revolution, on one hand, enriched the collection greatly as many masterpieces from private collections of Russian nobility became part of the museum, from the other hand, Bolsheviks started selling treasures abroad as the young soviet state was in need of money.

Right now the collection is more than 3mln pieces of art and a visitor have to spend 9 years inside the museum if he wishes to enjoy each piece of art during 1 minute

Any standard tour includes a visit to 5 buildings of The Hermitage Museum complex in St Petersburg: The Winter Palace with fantastically beautiful Gala Rooms, New Hermitage, Old Hermitage, Small Hermitage with masterpieces of European Paintings and the Hermitage Theatre’ lobby.

Art lovers wishing to enjoy impressionists/ post impressionists collections should let us know about it in advance – the collection is situated in a separate General Staff Building, just opposite the main museum complex.

For the second time visitors we recommend to visit Russian Porcelain Museum( the Hermitage’ department situated on the Porcelain factory founded in 1744 ), The Staraya Derevnya Hermitage Repository( murals, carriages, furniture, stain glasses and much, much more !)

For History Lovers – Menshikov palace and Palace of Peter the Great – both considered to be part of the Hermitage Museum Complex and are never included in the standard Hermitage tour.