Hermitage Museum, Art museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia
The State Hermitage Museum occupies six interconnected buildings along the Palace Embankment, among them the Winter Palace, whose light green facade with white columns and gold-framed windows faces the Neva. Its 365 public halls hold about three million items, from Rembrandt and Titian to the 19-tonne Kolyvan Vase of jasper, carved in 1843.
Catherine the Great founded the collection in 1764 by acquiring Western European paintings from a Berlin private collection. After the 1917 revolution, the imperial rooms opened to the public and expanded with confiscated artworks from aristocratic houses.
The name comes from the French ermitage, a hermit's retreat: Catherine the Great used the Small Hermitage's private apartments for salons with her inner circle. The museum marks its founding each 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day, and has been open to the public since 1852.
Of the six buildings in the main complex, five are open to the public: the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre. The museum is closed on Mondays, and individual visitors enter through the Winter Palace from the courtyard. Entrance is free on the third Thursday of each month and daily for students and children.
More than 60 cats live in the basement and continue a centuries-old tradition started by Empress Elisabeth to protect the collections from rodents. Each cat has a passport and medical records, and they enjoy their own heated rooms in the underground level.
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