Guided tour of the State Hermitage Museum

Guided tour of the State Hermitage Museum

The Hermitage strikes your imagination and serves as a pretext for a return to St. Petersburg! The Winter Palace is the main winter residence of the Russian Emperors and the largest art museum of Russia,the third largest museum in the world, known as the State Hermitage. It is really the world-famous treasury of art that began with 225 paintings bought for the Russian Empress Catherine II from a German merchant.
Though this museum is more famous for its European art collection, including works by Michelangelo Rubens, Rembrandt, Picasso, Matisse, its works of art number over 3 million items, embracing prehistoric culture, Egyptian and Byzantine art, Russian and Chinese art, the art of Antiquity, Scythian gold. There are more 1000 halls of the museum and 117 staircases. They say if you stay near each object only for one minute it will take you 8 years to see everything what the Hermitage possesses!
As you see, the collection is so diverse that every person will find something interesting . Here you can just promenade around the huge magnificent halls that witnessed renowned historical events. You can visit the very room where members of theProvisional Government were arrested in October 1917.
If you prefer the applied art, you will have an opportunity to see magnificent furniture, porcelain, majolica, tapestries, paintings and arms. As a matter fact, the exhibited collection of the French impressionists is believed to be the best in the world.
So the Hermitage of St. Petersburg is an undoubtedly must-see for al lvisitors regardless of the type of tour they choose. 
The museum comprises several buildings, including the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old and the New Hermitage, the Hermitage theatre. Also it owns the left wing of the General Staff building and the Menshikov Palace. 
Several music festivals take place in luxury interiors and chamber halls of the Palace which make one of the most remarkable . For your convenience, I buy entrance tickets in advance to skip the lines.

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