The Hermitage Museum

St. Petersburg's The State Hermitage Museum (Winter Palace), is the best gallery of world art in Russia, and one of the most prominent art museums in the world. This magnificent building of Baroque architecture, located on the bank of the Neva River, boasts 1057 lavishly decorated halls and rooms. This green and white three-story palace built between 1754 and 1762 was once the main residence of the Russian Tsars in St. Petersburg. Its first resident was none other than Catherine the Great who founded the museum in 1764 when she purchased a collection of 255 paintings from the German city of Berlin.

Today the Hermitage has over 2.7 million exhibits, and displays art from all over the world. The collection includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Van Gogh, Renoir, Rembrandt and Monet.

It is said that if you were to spend just one minute looking at each exhibit on display, you would need 11 years to see them all.

Click for more information on the State Herimtage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Buy the DVD about the art of The Sate Hermitage Musuem in St. Peterburg, Russia.