One of the oldest and largest museums in the world, The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is also one of the grandest and most opulent palace complexes in the world. From its beginnings in 1764 as the private collection of Catherine the Great, The Hermitage now houses more than three million items, including the world’s largest collection of oil paintings.

The museum complex is spread over six main buildings, including the Winter Palace which, from 1732 to 1917, was the official residence of the Russian Tsars. The current building is not Peter the Great’s original palace, and is actually the fourth fronting Palace Square to carry the name. It became part of history, however, first for the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1905 and then when it was stormed in 1917, becaming as synonymous with the Russian Revolution as it had previously been with the Russian monarchs.

The Hermitage, St Petersburg

If the Winter Palace looks familiar, you’d be right. Designed in the Elizabethan Baroque style that was so popular in Russia (and particularly St Petersburg), it was designed (principally) by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the same architect responsible for Catherine Palace, much of Peterhoff, and many other palaces in St Petersburg. While it has been modified and rebuilt a few times, the style and facade remain memorable and distinctive. This continues to be a significant and respected icon in Russian history.

Four of the six main buildings are partially open to the public. In addition to the Winter Palace, these include the Old Hermitage, the New Hermitage and the Small Hermitage – the original part of the museum that was first opened to the public in 1852. As only a small fraction of the total collection of three million items is on exhibition at any one time, the museum has a large storage facility at Staraya Derevnya.

The museum includes a number of exhibits from ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria, and a large Egyptian collection. There are also prehistoric artefacts dating from the paleolithic to the iron age, all generally excavated from within the borders of the former Soviet Union. There are also galleries for jewellery and other treasures, some of which are not generally open to the public.

The Hermitage, St Petersburg

The Hermitage is also well known internationally for its collection of stunning oil paintings. The collection of Italian Renaissance artists, for example, includes important works from Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Of the surviving twenty-four major works attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci (or his school), The Hermitage Museum possesses an impressive two (equal third on the international Leonardo hit parade with the National Gallery in London, after the Louvre in Paris, which has six, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which has three).

There are also significant collections of classic Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, German, British, Swiss and French works, including the large collections of van Dyck, Rubens, Thomas Gainsborough, Poussin and Rembrandt. There are also works of French Neoclassical, Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, including works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro and Gauguin.

One of the most stunning rooms in the Museum is the Pavillion Hall, designed by Andrei Stackenschneider in 1858. Located on the first floor of the Northern Pavilion in the Small Hermitage, it is famous not only for its unique and beautiful design and the 19th-century imitation of an ancient Roman mosaic on the floor, but also for the incredible 18th-century golden Peacock Clock by James Cox, which dominates the room.

The Hermitage, St Petersburg

While the museum itself is an inspiring place, one cannot help but feel while wandering around the impressive buildings that one is walking in the footsteps of the tsars. This was the official royal residence for almost two hundred years, and it certainly bears all the hallmarks of the palace of one of the most powerful monarchies in history. Massive, impressive grand staircases, huge halls and galleries, ornate decorations, and lots of gold and other rich trimmings everywhere.

When visiting, keep in mind that the general ticket price for foreign visitors is around four times the price charged to Russian citizens. This inequality may at first seem a little insulting in a country and city ostensibly keen to attract tourism, but this is also a nation still building a broad trust and thirst for knowledge within what was once a very closed and restricted society. Don’t think that you are being charged more than the locals, think rather that the locals are being offered a discount to encourage their sense of ownership and national pride.

If the difference in price is still a concern, then make a note that the museum is open free of charge to all visitors – foreign and domestic – on the first Thursday of every month. Oh, but also note that it is closed on Mondays.

The Hermitage, St Petersburg