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The Hermitage
The Hermitage comprises five buildings: - The Winter Palace (B. Rastrelli) - The Small Hermitage (V. de la Mothe) - The Old Hermitage (Yu. Felten) - The Hermitage Theatre (G. Quarenghi) - The New Hermitage (L. Klenze, V. Stasov, N. Yefimov, sculptor A. Terebenev) All the buildings are interconnected by passages in the form of arches, covered bridges and a hanging garden. 
The oldest and the largest is the Winter Palace, which was built and designed in Russian
Baroque style by the eminent architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-1762. It's executed in
fine taste and is Rastrelli's masterpiece. The palace building is nearly two kilometers long
in perimeter, 22m high. For a long time the palace was the biggest and most elegant building
in St.Petersburg.In 1837, a fire which blazed for three days destroyed everything but the brick walls. The restoration was done by the architects V. Starov and A. Bryullov. They completely preserved Rastrelli's exterior, while the interior was decorated according to the changed fashion. All these treasures were closed to the general public and only tsars and their courts had access. Catherine wrote of her possessions in the Hermitage the "all this is only for the mice and myself to admire". Even many years later only specially selected guests, the members of the royal family and courtiers where allowed to enter. 
In 1852 the Hermitage was opened to the public as a museum of the certain daya, but common
people were not admitted.
After the Revolution the Hermitage was opened to all people. The Story of the Hermitage collection begin with Catherine II. The museum was founded in the year of 1764, when 225 Dutch and Flemish paintings, bought in Berlin, where first deposited in the Winter Palace. Russian ambassadors to Europe were given the task of attending art auctions and buying as much as possible. 
Ten years later the collection already contained 2080 paintings, drawings, cameos,
sculptures.After Catherine's death, later emperors continued to enlarge the collection. In 1814, Alexander I after the victory over Napoleon, bought the private collection of Napoleon's wife Josephine. |
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