Hermitage

The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great bought an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day. It has been open to the public since 1852.

Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items (the numismatic collection accounts for about one-third of them), including the largest collection of paintings in the world. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building are also part of the museum. The museum has several exhibition centers abroad. Of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five are open to the public.

The museum exposition shows the history of world art from the Stone Age to the end of the 20th century. The collection of primitive art and archaeological cultures from the territory of the former USSR is one of the most important, especially the world's richest collection of Scythian gold, unique finds from the mounds of Pazyryk, and monuments of other cultures of the Great Steppe. The so-called "Paleolithic Venus" from the village of Kostenki, many samples of ceramics, bronze casting, and stone slabs with petroglyphs. The art gallery of the "old masters" reflects the academic tastes of collectors - Russian emperors. During the formation of the collection, the Florentines of the High Renaissance, the Bologna school, the "Little Dutch", the circle of Rubens and Tiepolo, French classicism and Rococo were the most valuable. At the same time, there are quite a few paintings by Italian and Old Dutch masters in the museum.

A tour to Hermitage gives a possibility to see the masterpieces of old European painting, which are "Madonna Benoit" by Leonardo da Vinci, "Judith" by Giorgione, "Woman's portrait" by Correggio, "Saint Sebastian" by Titian, "Lute player" by Caravaggio, "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Rembrandt, "Lady in Blue" by Gainsborough and much more. The museum has rich collections of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Poussin, Titian, Veronese, Claude Lorrain, and others.

The museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for individual visitors is located in the Winter Palace, accessible from the Courtyard.