Friends, in the first article of the new year, we will take a short walk through the main museum of Saint Petersburg, the State Hermitage. The museum complex includes several buildings, each of which could fill an entire book. One day, I will tell you more about these buildings, but today I would like to share photos from my visit to this world-famous museum and tell you how to get there in these challenging times of restrictions and bans.
How to Get There by Metro
The address of the Main Museum Complex is Palace Embankment, 32-38. The nearest metro station to the Winter Palace, which is the entrance to the museum, is "Admiralteyskaya." The walk from the station to the museum takes about seven minutes.
How to Visit the Hermitage
Tickets for the Hermitage can be purchased either at the entrance ticket counters or on the museum's website. I visited the exhibition with e-tickets, which saves you from waiting in long lines. However, I noticed that some visitors with online tickets did not realize this and ended up waiting along with those who had not paid for entry yet.
When purchasing tickets, you can choose between two routes: Route 1 and Route 2. According to the museum’s website, choosing Route 1 allows you to visit the ceremonial halls of the Winter Palace, as well as the Old and New Hermitage collections. Route 2 offers a tour of the palace interiors and items from Russian, Eastern, English, and French art. The paths of both routes cross, so you can easily switch from one to the other. For convenience, you will receive a link to the museum's map along with your tickets by email.
The cost of visiting the Main Museum Complex for Russian citizens is 500 rubles. Discounted tickets are available for pensioners, students, and certain other groups. In the past, all Hermitage branches had a free admission day for everyone, but now only certain visitors (including pensioners and students) can visit the museum for free on the third Thursday of each month. All information in this article is based on December 2021, and you can follow updates on the museum's official website.
A Few Facts About the Hermitage
- The museum was founded in 1764, when Empress Catherine II purchased over two hundred paintings from merchant I. E. Gotzkowsky. Initially, the collection was a personal one for the empress.
- The artworks were housed in rooms of the Winter Palace, which were called the Hermitage (from the French "ermitage" meaning "place of solitude"). This is where the museum got its name.
- The Hermitage opened to the public in 1852, during the reign of Catherine II’s grandson, Nicholas I.
- The Hermitage is not just the famous Winter Palace. The museum complex also includes the Small, New, and Old (Large) Hermitages and the Hermitage Theater. Today, the museum also has several branches: the General Staff Building, the Menshikov Palace, the Winter Palace of Peter I, the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, and the Restoration and Storage Center "Old Village."
- By the end of the 18th century, the Hermitage collection included 3,000 paintings and 100,000 drawings. Today, the museum’s holdings exceed 3 million exhibits. Some estimates suggest that if you were to stop for one minute at each artwork during your walk through the Hermitage, spending eight hours a day, it would take you about 15 years to see the entire collection.
Spending 15 years viewing the museum’s treasures is something none of us could physically do. Fortunately, in the age of the internet, we can take virtual tours of any landmark from the comfort of our homes. I invite you to continue exploring the world of art in future articles about other Hermitage exhibition spaces: the General Staff Building, the Menshikov Palace, and the Winter Palace of Peter I.
Have a nice trip!