Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The State Hermitage is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. It was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and 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, 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. The Hermitage is a federal state property. Since 1990, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky.

Of six buildings of the main museum complex, four, named the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage and New Hermitage, are partially open to the public. The other two are the Hermitage Theatre and the Reserve House. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists costs more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia and Belarus. However, entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visitors, and free daily for students and children. The museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for individual visitors is located in the Winter Palace, accessible from the Courtyard.

Hermitage Museum consists of 11 collections from the Egyptian and Classical antiquities to the fine art of Dutch, German, British, French and Russians. There are lot of remarkable masterpieces for example from Leonardo da Vinci, Goya, Rubens and Rembrandt. Also a Neoclassical, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist art is well represented. The collection including works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, is displayed there in the southeastern corner of Winter Palace.

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User Reviews

Dejan Braki (23 months ago)
Normally I'd rate this outstanding museum 5+ stars, but having no English option on a paid guided tour is unacceptable. The second largest museum in the world, set in one of world's most beautiful palaces is a must on every traveler list. The collection is incredible - spread in several adjoining buildings beside the splendid Winter Palace, and at the General Staff bldg as well. World history art biggest names are here. Covid rules - TIPS: - BUY your tickets ONLINE - due to Covid the volume of daily admittance is limited and I am not sure if they sell tickets at the counter at all !! - Tickets are on a time slot basis with 15 min tolerance. - You have TWO fixed routes to choose from - you can NOT combine them, nor you can take the other when you finish the first (unless you have purchased both tours with different timings), - You can buy the guided Diamond room or guided Gold room (neither of them you can visit alone). They last 1 hour after you're left alone to walk yourself one of the routes. Tickets are almost double the fixed route, but still much cheaper than in Europe (around 15$) for such a museum, - I chose the Diamond room tour and after 20 min was very bored and after 40 min I left the tour. The guide spoke only Russian (there was NOT an option online for English tour, so I thought it'd be bilingual), which is quite unacceptable for such a world class museum and therefore I deduct one star

Letícia M. (23 months ago)
You have to take a few days to see everything on the Museum, it is huge! It is not by chance that the people took power in the past, the palace is huge and very incredible, with a wealth of details. I strongly recommend the visitation, just includ in your tourists plans and go!

Ahmet İhsan Kaya (2 years ago)
One of the largest museums in the world, if not the largest one. There are collections from all over the world from ancient times to modern. It takes at least 3-4 hours just to finish the ground floor to the full, even if you skip some of the exhibition rooms just taking a quick glance. It's worth coming to St. Petersburg just to visit here. Magnificent!

Evgeniya Bozhko (KoriAndrTheCat) (2 years ago)
We visited the Hermitage just because it is one of the most known places in the world. It is truly grandiose, though. The exhibition is marvelous and everything is organized. It is very hard to find parking there, and we had to drive around for a long time to finally snatch a spot, so make sure to arrive earlier before your time to go in. Buying tickets online was super easy and the website in general is very website user-friendly.

G S (2 years ago)
5 Stars is not enough for this museum. I wouldn't even call this a museum to be honest, it's so much more. The place was breathtaking! A full day here was not enough, must visit again! ? P.s. any gift shopping, buy here, quality is excellent and there's a very big choice

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