Эрмитажный гараж, Imperial garage at State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Hermitage Garage is a red-brick building set inside the inner courtyard of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. It houses historical vehicles belonging to the museum's collection and displays the industrial construction style of the early 1900s.
Emperor Nicholas II had this building constructed between 1910 and 1911 to serve the needs of the imperial court, with architect Nikolai Kramskoy leading the project. The walls were built using slag blocks, a material that was new and experimental at the time.
The cars kept inside show how the imperial family adopted motor vehicles as part of daily court life at a time when few people in Russia owned one. Walking through the space gives a concrete sense of how quickly the court embraced new technology in the early 1900s.
The building is not open for independent visits and can only be seen as part of a guided tour organized by the museum. It is worth asking at the museum in advance which tours cover this part of the courtyard.
After a full restoration in 2011, the building was returned to active use and still serves the museum's transport needs today. The exterior color of the walls was matched to the original shade of the Winter Palace as it appeared in the early 1900s, so both buildings look like they belong to the same moment in time.
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