St. Petersburg - The Hermitage

Tuesday, 25 September 2018

We took the optional, all-day tour of the Hermitage museums. For openers, we got to enter an hour early and had a relatively uncrowded tour. We also got to see two other Hermitage sites. It was a good choice. We had a great day, but barely scratched the surface of this enormous museum.

We started in the main Hermitage museum, which is really five inter-connected buildings -- the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the New Hermitage, the Large (Old) Hermitage, and the Winter Palace of Peter I and Hermitage Theater. The photo above shows (as best I can) the Main (or Jordan) Staircase, which is the current entry point to the collections.

Especially near the beginning of the tour, the rooms were the art. This is the Armorial Hall, one of the immense formal state rooms in the Hermitage.

The Pavilion Hall holds the amazing Peacock Clock that has been keeping time for over 225 years. The full mechanism is on display on Wednesdays (we missed by one day), but you can find some amazing videos of it in action on the internet.

The wooden floors themselves are amazing works of art -- finely patterned parquet. I guess that's why the US company we bought our parquet compass rose from is called Czar Floors. This floor was in the Small Throne Room.

There are a number of long galleries/arcades/loggias in the Hermitage. From left: Rafael Loggia (a replica of one in the Vatican); Gallery of the History of Ancient Paintings; the Hall of Twenty Columns.

The State Staircase was used by visiting dignitaries during the time of the tsars.

The exterior of the Hermitage/Winter Palace as seen from Palace Square.

After two hours (a very short tour!) in the main Hermitage buildings, we crossed Palace Square to the East Wing of the General Staff Bulding. This side of the building was given to the Hermitage by the Russian government and has been renovated into a modern art museum, and houses the Hermitage's French Impressionist collection.

A sculpture of Victory in her chariot is over the portal between the two wings of the General Staff Building.

A panoramic view of Palace Square. The Hermitage is on the left and the General Staff Building is on the right. The Alexander Column is in the middle.

The 47-m (157 ft) high Alexander Column is topped by an angel.

After lunch, we visited the Hermitage restoration center and repository on the north side of St. Petersburg. This impressive building is new - and difficult to photograph because of construction fences surrounding it. We saw a lot of interesting and impressive artifacts here (garments, furniture, diplomatic gifts, and carriages) that are rotated through climate-controlled showcases. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed.