Destinations / The best art galleries in the world / Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg

 

  The main building of the Hermitage Museum is the Winter Palace, built by the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1754-1762), in Baroque style. The first person who lived here was Catherine the Great. In 1764, near the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Catherine the Great ordered to be build a secluded residence, for recreation or, in other words, a "Hermitage", where to stay quiet, surrounded by a few friends and admire the paintings which she used to buy on the European market. Catherine the Great did know too much about painting, but she liked a lot buying paintings: "I'm just greedy, not connoisseur" she used to say about herself. Twenty years later the space was expanded in order for her extraordinary art collection to fit in. Since then, Hermitage has continued to develop: the smaller wing that Catherine wanted, increased for five times, and the name Hermitage is associated to all the five buildings that compose the complex today. 

 

  Despite Russia's isolation from major art centers of Europe, the Hermitage has achieved a stunning collection in the last three centuries. Its patrimony comprises approximately 3 million pieces (antiques, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, decorative arts), of which approx. 60 000 are on permanent display in six monumental buildings that make up the museum complex. In fact, the museum shows the evolution of world culture and art from the Stone Age until the 20th century. Only the Western European art department art covers French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Danish and Flemish art. In particular, Hermitage possesses two of the ten or twelve original paintings of Leonardo da Vinci known in the world today. The main attraction is the Golden Rooms, a huge collection of gold jewelry, silver and precious stones created by Russian, European and east craftsmen. 

 

  It it said that to go through all the halls of the museum it would take three months without sleep and without eating. 

 

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