The Hermitage

The Hermitage can be rightly called one of the world’s top ranking Museum because of it’s large collection of European art and masters, of course I would not disagree but I found the Louvre in Paris to be the best of them all including the Prado. To be perfectly honest I don't think any other museum in the world can rival the Hermitage in size and quality except the Louvre. I think that if anyone had to spend time viewing everything inside the Hermitage, they would need at least a year to do so. We found so many tourists there who had made a special trip just to visit the Hermitage. I have always loved art and the appreciation of it came with my time spent with Don my American boyfriend who was art crazy, and by art crazy I mean so bad that his house looked like a museum of it's own. The people who come to the Hermitage come to spend time on painters whose work can be admired by seeing the originals in a city so rich in history; granted many can go to New York or Paris, but why spend so much money on high priced places like New York when for half the price Russia offers a world never seen before?. From modern art on the top floor, alternative options on the second floor and antiques on the lower level, the museum offers a feast to the eyes of the art lover and the historian. The second floor hosts the location of the chambers were the royalty of Russia held parties and feasts. The Italian and French influences are very strong, the French impressionist paintings dating back hundreds of years. I have never seen so many collections of the works of Matisse and Rembrandt in one place like there is in the Hermitage. History praises Peter the great for being an art collector who started it all. It is said Catherine the great later on added to the collection too. I must warn you that this museum is big, by big I mean HUGE, nothing can prepare you for how huge it is until you decide to see as much as you can. Peter and I spent two hours and barely touched it. After two hours Peter decided he would wait for me outside, he was tired of walking and he was not the art ‘freak’ like I’m so the fun for him was about over after thirty minutes of viewing. My excitement kept me from feeling how tired my feet were becoming; I braved another 45 minutes before it was coffee time again. The entrance is located on the river front side of the building. I suggest you purchase your ticket and visit the museum in the morning hours. I recall they closed the ticket counters much earlier than the museum closed and many people were disappointed by it. I can’t remember now how much Peter paid for the entrance fees, but it must have changed in the past ten or so years. But whatever the price, if you can afford to, visit this museum it is money well spent and a day going through a window to another time and another place. I should love to return there sometime again to see more . . .

St. Petersburg is defenetely the most beautiful city i've ever seen! Architecture is great and central area is very nice.

One of the most wonderful palaces in North-Eastern Europe, is the Winter Palace of Tsar Peter 1 in Saint-Petersburg (Russia), also called The Hermitage.
Here you find a huge collection of art, crown juwelery, ancient history, Old Master paintings etc.
They say you need 90 days to see the total collection inside all the Halls.

There are a lot of museums which are described as world class museum of this or that but only a few really deserve the label world class museum. One that really deserves the title of world class is the Hermitage Museum in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.

The art collection is outstanding. The only main problem is you can not really get around the museum in only one day. With a total of 3.000.000 pieces in the collection you will need to spend days, weeks or even months to see it all. Hence you will need to decide which part of the museum you want to see at your visit. Or you can just make a quick dash to see a few pieces - like the Michelangelo, van Gogh and Monet - well given the seize of the museum there is not really anything like a quick dash around it will take a while no matter what you want to do.

The only thing missing in the museum is arts later than 1917. There is a lot of paintings up until the beginning of World War I but not a lot after it. The main reason is the collection originates from old pre-Revolutionary Russian collectors and it was confiscated during the Russian revolution.

The biggest distraction from the arts is actually the building itself. It is one of the most amazing buildings in the world. The original parts of the building - the Winter Palace - was build as a winter residence for the Russian Zar and his family. It was later expanded and the first art museum in Russian was build as the Hermitage. The construction of the Hermitage was designed to be a place to display the art work of the Zarina Catherine. Hence the building is designed with art work in the roof and on the walls made to impress.

Some part of the museum is still just used to display the scale of the building itself and you can end up spending a lot of time just staring at the empty walls and at the sealing of the museum instead of the arts.

Today the building has got no sign of the turbulent history which have given it some scares at times. During the war the museum were hit repeatedly by German artillery and the people working at the museum had to make emergency repairs in the middle of the cold Russian winter at a time when they were only getting a few slices of bread consisting mainly of saw dust a day. But the building did survive the war and even without any art it would be well worth a visit.

The price for non-Russians is pretty high at 350 rubbles or 10€. If you can go along with somebody Russian who can buy your ticket you may be able to sneak in only paying the local rate of 100 Rubbles. Students of all nationalities get in for free. If you want to take pictures (highly recommended) it is another 100 Rubbles.

If you want to get guided tours of the museum it will cost you extra but may help you get in without joining the queue for the ticket counter which at times can get pretty long. There is also an additional fee for the Gold Room and Diamond room which contains some of the treasures of the Zar family. If you still want to see more arts after visiting the main museum you can get tickets for other buildings around the Hermitage again it is additional fees.

This is the Hermitage. It is the old Winter Palace. Nowadays it contains thousands of works of art in over 1,050 rooms and hallways! It is amazing. However, beware. It does NOT have a lot of Russian Art. That can be found in the Russian Museum.

I don't normally find myself able to stay in museums for any great length of time; I get restless and tired. But the Hermitage is the most fantastic museum I've ever been to. We kicked ourselves for not having allowed more time for going round.

The building itself is magnificent; there are many many grand rooms appointed with wonderful furnishings. But for me the collection of European paintings was fascinating; there were so many famous works in there, by such a range of famous artists. There are also all sorts of other collections, that we didn't have time to see properly.

I would really like to go back to St Petersburg just to go to the Hermitage again. Make sure you leave yourself lots of time for going round if you do go.