The Winter Palace - Hermitage Museum

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Today we fulfilled a long held dream to visit the world’s largest museum in one of the greatest palaces in the world, The Hermitage. The Winter Palace was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. The palace was constructed on a monumental scale that was intended to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia. From the palace, the Tsar ruled over 22,400,000 square kilometers, almost one sixth of the Earth's landmass and over 125 million subjects by the end of the 19th century. The Winter Palace has been calculated to contain 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms and 117 staircases. The storming of the palace in 1917 became an iconic symbol of the Russian Revolution.



The Hermitage Museum was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzowsky. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world.



Daunted at the thought of trying to see as many of the collections in one short day, we arrived at the museum just after opening time, first booking a guided tour of the highlights of the museum. The English Tour commenced at 1.30pm, enabling us to first explore some of the collections. We initially browsed some of the furnished rooms of the Palace, followed by an antiquities of the Islamic World collection, then viewed the Egyptian antiquities collection. By this time, it was approaching lunch time, so we had a bite to eat at a cafe in the Hermitage.



We then joined the English Tour for the Highlights of the Hermitage Museum. Our knowledgeable and informative guide first led us up the grand staircase of the palace, followed by an exhibition of original royal clothing and armour. We then moved through the jewellery and clock collection. We were led through various rooms of the palace, past ornate tables, vases and vessels of marble and precious stone, some of gigantic proportions. Some of the rooms of the palace had intricate parquetry flooring, which perfectly matched the intricate rococo ceiling design, as if perfectly reflected in a mirror.



We were then led through the most iconic paintings of the Hermitage. Two Leonardo da Vinci paintings, the Raphael Room, Rembrandts, Rubens, Degas, Goya, Cranach, Gorgione, Titian, Veronese, Canaletto, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Velazquez, El Greco, Murillo, not to mention all of the other great Dutch and Flemish painters. We also were led past Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, Crouching Boy.



After finishing the guided tour, we did a quick walk through again of the iconic art works of the museum followed by the hall of sculptures, and a quick rerun of the Egyptian antiquities. We were just about done for energy and done for time, as the museum was shortly to close, so reluctantly we exited and headed back down Nevsky Prospekt to our Hotel. We were, though, very happy to finally tick the Hermitage Museum off our Bucket List.

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