The State Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage Museum. Location on an interactive map and geographic coordinates.

The State Hermitage Museum on Google Maps
The State Hermitage Museum - is not only the pride of St. Petersburg, but throughout Russia. The Hermitage is the largest art gallery in the world and the largest art and cultural-historical museum in Russia. It is located along the River Neva. It consists of more than 350 rooms, which occupy five historic buildings. The museum contains more than 3 million works of art and archaeological objects. Since 1764 the Hermitage was the private collection of Catherine ІІ (the Great). There were 225 paintings by Flemish and Dutch artists in the collection. It was placed in a separate room of the palace. The Hermitage in French means 'lonely place', because Catherine II liked to rest here among her relatives. Therefore 1764 is considered as the founding date of the museum. But the museum was open to visitors only on 5 February 1852 (the New Hermitage was built specially for this aim). In 1863 the Hermitage was opened to the public free access.

The complex of buildings of the Hermitage Museum can be seen on the map and on the panoramic images:
• The Winter palace
  This residence of Russian emperors.
• The Small Hermitage
  A two-storey building, which was built under Catherine (the Great).
• The Great (Old) Hermitage
  Built in 1787 for the storage of new palace collections and libraries of Catherine II. It was named the Great Hermitage because it is building was bigger than the Small Hermitage building.
• The Hermitage Theatre
  Built for masquerades and performances.
• The New Hermitage
  Built under Nicholas I to display exhibits of the imperial collection.