There is a museum in St Petersburg, Russia, whose name can be translated as “a solitary corner” or “hideaway” and which (despite its strange name) is visited by at least 4 million people per year.
We speak about the State Hermitage Museum. With a tremendous collection of over 3 million pieces of art situated in more than 1000 extremely beautiful rooms it remains one of the most attractive and famous museums in the world, “a must” for any cultured or just curious person on a private tour or shore excursion in St Petersburg.
Getting inside with a St Petersburg private guide will help you to see shining gems of its numerous collections while not standing in really long lines and wandering in the labyrinth of corridors, staircases (all in all there are 117 of them) and lovely decorated rooms.
The State Hermitage Museum has 6 departments: European Painting, History of Russian Culture, Prehistorical Department, Oriental Department, Department of Coins and Medals, and the Department of Greek and Roman culture. The Museum consists of 5 buildings and during your St Petersburg tour with a private guide you can visit each:
1) Winter Palace (residence of all Russian Tsars and Tsarinas)- here you will experience the lavishly decorated state rooms of Russian Emperors.
2) The Small Hermitage – the first picture collection was accommodated here by Catherine II.
3) The Old Hermitage – contains a collection of Old Italian masters, including Leonardo da Vinci.
4) The New Hermitage – was constructed as an Imperial Public Museum for the rapidly growing collection of Russian Tsars and Tsarinas.
5) The Hermitage Theatre (even now, as well as many years before, in the XVIII century, you can buy tickets and enjoy an evening ballet performance there)
When you are limited in time and wish to see as much as possible of St Petersburg you can to start your visit to the Hermitage before official opening hours (that is before 10:30am), we call it “early opening hours visit”, thus saving precious time for other beautiful places and museums in St Petersburg (museums of St Petersburg start working from 10-11am).
However, it is possible only with your St Petersburg private guide; it is highly recommended for those, who take St Petersburg shore excursions as cruise ships arrive to St Petersburg on a very short period of time.
The Hermitage also offers the Diamond and Gold treasure rooms, which received their names not because they were covered with pure gold and glittering diamonds as some can suppose, but because they contained a collection of Jewelry and art from ancient times up to the XX century. Please keep in mind you can visit these rooms (excursion to each room will take you 1 hour or even more). To visit these special rooms you must:
1) Visit on a certain day and time only
2) With a Hermitage registered guide
3) For extra money
Only 5% of the Hermitage collection is on display, the rest is in storage. But recently the Hermitage has opened the doors of its very well equipped “Art Restoration and Storage center” on Staraya Derevnya, near the outskirts of the city, to all art amateurs (tickets should be reserved well in advance) where you can find many pieces of art hidden from the public eye only until recently.
In addition, you can visit different provisional exhibitions in The Hermitage itself: it doesn’t matter when you visit the Hermitage as there are always 4 or 5 of them are on display simultaneously.
There are 3 others museums in St Petersburg which are branches of the Hermitage:
1. Museum of Porcelain
2. Peter the Great‘s Winter Palace which is a part of the Hermitage complex of buildings but you have to buy a separate ticket there. This small palace is where the founder of our city, Peter the Great, really lived and died, and will be of great interest for every Russian History amateur. A curious visitor can find there as well the wax figure of tsar himself with movable joints so it is possible to change his costume from time to time.
3. XVIII century Menshikov Palace belonged to a close friend of Peter the Great, a talented military commander, administrator and the first governor of St Petersburg who could make his overwhelming career only due to his personal talents and abilities but after the death of Peter the Great, finished his days in exile in Siberia in full oblivion. The rooms of the palace give you a clear idea about the life, habits, and taste of a rich Russian socialite.
Image by archer10 (Dennis) SLOW
