Hermitage Museum facts for kids

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The State Hermitage Museum

View of (from left) the Hermitage Theatre, Old Hermitage, and Small Hermitage
Established	1764; 261 years ago (1764)
Location	34 Palace Embankment, Dvortsovy Municipal Okrug, Central District, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Collection size	3 million
Visitors	2,812,913 visitors (2022)
Public transit access	Admiralteyskaya station

The State Hermitage Museum is a famous museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It started in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great bought a large collection of paintings. The museum celebrates its birthday every year on December 7th. It first opened to the public in 1852. In 2022, it was one of the most visited art museums in the world.

The museum has over three million items in its collections. Only a small part of these items is shown at one time. The collections are spread across six historic buildings. These buildings are located along Palace Embankment. One of them is the Winter Palace, which used to be where Russian emperors lived. Other parts of the museum include the Menshikov Palace and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building. The Hermitage also has exhibition centers in other countries.

Five of the six main museum buildings are open to visitors. These are the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre. Students and children can enter for free every day. Also, everyone can visit for free on the third Thursday of each month. The museum is closed on Mondays. You can enter the museum through the Winter Palace courtyard.

What Does "Hermitage" Mean?

The word "hermitage" means a place where a hermit or a person who lives alone stays. It comes from an old French word, which means "hermit" or "recluse." This word then came from a Greek word meaning "people who live alone." This is because the museum was once a private place for Empress Catherine.

Museum Buildings

At first, the art collection was only in one building called the "Small Hermitage." Today, the Hermitage Museum includes many buildings. These buildings are located along the Palace Embankment and nearby areas.

Besides the Small Hermitage, the museum now has the "Old Hermitage" (also known as "Large Hermitage"). It also includes the "New Hermitage" and the "Hermitage Theatre." The "Winter Palace" is also part of the museum. This palace was once the main home of the Russian tsars. In recent years, the Hermitage has also expanded into the General Staff Building. This building is on Palace Square, right across from the Winter Palace. The Menshikov Palace is also now part of the museum.

The Hermitage Museum complex. From left to right: Hermitage Theatre – Old Hermitage – Small Hermitage – Winter Palace (the "New Hermitage" is situated behind the Old Hermitage)

Amazing Art Collections

The Hermitage Museum has many different art collections. These include art from Europe, ancient times, and even prehistoric times.

Ancient Egyptian Art

Egyptian Hall

The collection of Egyptian items started in 1852. Since 1940, this collection has been in a large hall. You can find it on the ground floor of the Winter Palace. It includes many interesting artifacts from ancient Egypt.

Classical Art from Greece and Rome

The museum's collection of classical art is on the ground floor. It fills most of the Old and New Hermitage buildings. These rooms were designed in the 1850s to look like ancient Greek buildings. They use painted walls and columns made of real marble.

One special item is the Kolyvan Vase. It is very tall, about 2.57 meters (8.4 feet) high. This vase weighs 19 tons (about 42,000 pounds)! It was made from jasper stone in 1843. It was so big that it had to be put in place before the walls of the room were built.

This collection includes Greek art from thousands of years ago. You can see ancient Greek pottery and items from Greek cities near the Black Sea. There are also sculptures and jewelry from the Hellenistic period. Famous items include the Gonzaga Cameo. The collection also has Roman sculptures and art. A highlight is the Tauride Venus statue. Experts now believe it is an original Greek sculpture, not a Roman copy.

Art from Prehistoric Times

On the ground floor of the Winter Palace, you can find prehistoric artifacts. These items date from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. They were found during digs across Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

One famous part of this collection is from the Altai Mountains. It includes art and culture from ancient nomadic tribes. You can see the world's oldest surviving knotted-pile carpet. There is also a well-preserved wooden chariot. Both are from the 4th–3rd centuries BC. The museum also has items from the ancient kingdom of Urartu. Many of these were found in Armenia.

Jewelry and Decorative Art

The museum has two special "treasure galleries." The first one is on the ground floor of the New Hermitage. It shows Western jewelry from 4000 BC to the early 1900s. The second treasure gallery is in the Winter Palace. It features gold jewelry from ancient Scythian and Sarmatian tribes.

The Pavilion Hall

The Pavilion Hall is a beautiful room designed in 1858. It has a famous 18th-century golden Peacock Clock. This clock was made by James Cox. The hall also displays a collection of mosaics. Other galleries show decorative art from Europe from the 12th to 15th centuries. They also feature fine art from the Netherlands from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Italian Renaissance Art

The rooms on the first floor of the Old Hermitage show works by Italian Renaissance artists. These include famous painters like Giorgione, Titian, and Veronese. You can also see Benois Madonna and Madonna Litta. These paintings are thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci or his students.

The Small Italian Skylight Room

The Italian Renaissance collection continues in the New Hermitage. It features paintings, sculptures, and tapestries from 15th–16th century Italy. This includes Conestabile Madonna and Madonna with Beardless St. Joseph by Raphael.

Italian and Spanish Fine Art

The first floor of the New Hermitage has three large rooms with red walls. These rooms are lit from above by skylights. They display Italian and Spanish paintings from the 16th–18th centuries. You can see works by Veronese, Tintoretto, Velázquez, and Murillo.

Knights' Hall

The Knights' Hall is a large room in the New Hermitage. It now holds a collection of Western European arms and armor. These items are from the 15th–17th centuries. This collection is part of the Hermitage Arsenal.

Next to the Knights' Hall is the Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting. This gallery features neoclassical marble sculptures. These were made by Antonio Canova and his followers. The gallery leads to the main staircase of the New Hermitage. This staircase was once the main entrance to the museum.

Dutch and Flemish Art

The rooms and galleries in the New Hermitage are now dedicated to Dutch and Flemish art. These are from the 17th century, known as the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque. The collection includes many works by Van Dyck, Rubens, and Rembrandt.

German, Swiss, British, and French Art

The first floor of the Winter Palace displays German art from the 16th century. It also has French fine art from the 15th–18th centuries. This includes paintings by Poussin, Lorrain, and Watteau. You can also see French decorative art and British art. British artists like Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds are featured.

Russian Art

The beautiful rooms on the first floor of the Winter Palace show Russian art. This collection includes art from the 11th to the 19th centuries.

French Modern Art

Garden at Bordighera, Impression of Morning, 1884, by Claude Monet

French Neoclassical, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist art is displayed. You can find these works on the fourth floor of the General Staff Building. Artists like Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin are featured. Other artists include Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and Degas.

Modern and 19th–20th Century Art

Portrait of Nikolay Borisovich Yusupov by Italian Vincenzo Petrocelli, 1851

Modern art is also shown in the General Staff Building (Saint Petersburg). This includes works by Matisse, Picasso, Malevich, and Kandinsky. There is a large room dedicated to German Romantic art from the 19th century. This includes paintings by Caspar David Friedrich. The second floor also has collections of Oriental art from places like China, India, and Tibet.

History of the Hermitage

The Hermitage Museum has a long and interesting history. It grew from a private collection into a world-famous public museum.

Catherine the Great's Collection

Empress Catherine II

Empress Catherine the Great started the art collection in 1764. She bought paintings from a merchant in Berlin named Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. He had gathered these paintings for a king who decided not to buy them. So, Catherine bought over 200 paintings, mostly from Dutch and Flemish artists. These included works by Rembrandt, Rubens, and Anthony van Dyck. Some of the most famous paintings she bought were Danaë by Rembrandt and Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Glove by Frans Hals. These paintings are still in the Hermitage today.

In 1764, Catherine asked Yury Felten to build an extension to the Winter Palace. This building was finished in 1766. Later, it became part of the Small Hermitage. From 1767 to 1775, other buildings were added and connected by galleries. Catherine displayed her collections in these galleries. This whole building is now known as the Small Hermitage. During Catherine's time, the Hermitage was not open to everyone. Only a few special people were allowed to see her art.

The Hermitage buildings were home and workplace for many people, including the Imperial family. They also showed off Russian treasures and wealth. Many grand events were held there, like masquerade balls and state ceremonies. The "Hermitage complex" became a symbol of the Russian Empire. Today, the palace and the museum are combined.

Catherine bought many other collections over the years. In 1769, she bought over 600 paintings from Heinrich von Brühl. In 1772, she bought a collection from Pierre Crozat in France. She also bought paintings from Robert Walpole in London in 1779. Catherine especially loved collecting engraved gems and cameos. At a special exhibit in 2000, a whole gallery showed her favorite items. This included a cameo of Catherine dressed as Minerva, a Roman goddess.

View of the Palace Embankment by Karl Beggrov, 1826. The Old Hermitage is in the middle of the painting.

Her collection grew very quickly. She had 4,000 paintings, 38,000 books, and thousands of gems, drawings, coins, and medals. So, in 1771, she asked Yury Felten to build another large extension. This building was finished in 1787 and is called the Large Hermitage or Old Hermitage. Catherine also had a private theatre built nearby, called the Hermitage Theatre. In 1787, she bought a collection of ancient Roman sculptures. These sculptures later became a key part of the Hermitage's classical art collection. From 1787 to 1792, a wing was built along the Winter Canal. It had the Raphael Loggias, which copied a famous loggia in Rome.

Catherine's collection of 4,000 paintings became as impressive as older European museums. She was very proud of her art and used it to show that Russia was an advanced and enlightened society. She saw herself as a great supporter of the arts.

Growing in the 19th Century

Portico with atlantes, historical entrance

In 1815, Alexander I of Russia bought 38 paintings from the family of Joséphine de Beauharnais. Many of these had been taken by the French during a war. At that time, the Hermitage had the largest collection of Rembrandt paintings in the world. Alexander also bought the first sculptures by the artist Antonio Canova for the Hermitage.

The Raphael Loggias

From 1840 to 1843, Vasily Stasov redesigned parts of the Small Hermitage. In 1838, Nicholas I asked a German architect, Leo von Klenze, to design a building for a public museum. This new building, called the New Hermitage, was built from 1842 to 1851. It included the wing with the Raphael Loggias.

The New Hermitage opened to the public on February 5, 1852. That same year, the Egyptian Collection of the Hermitage Museum grew with new items. From 1851 to 1860, the Old Hermitage was also redesigned. The Pavilion Hall was created in the Small Hermitage during this time.

In 1861, the Hermitage bought a large collection of classical art from the Papal government. This included over 500 vases and many marble statues. The museum also acquired Madonna Litta in 1865 and Raphael's Connestabile Madonna in 1870. In 1884, Alexander III of Russia bought a collection of European medieval and Renaissance items. In 1885, a collection of arms and armor was moved to the Hermitage. In 1914, Leonardo's Benois Madonna was added to the collection.

After the Russian Revolution

A room in the Winter Palace

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Imperial Hermitage and the Winter Palace became state museums. They were eventually combined. The Hermitage's collections grew even more. Many private art collections from palaces and mansions were taken by the state. These artworks were then shared among major Soviet museums. Important paintings came from places like the Catherine Palace and the Yusupov Palace.

In 1927, about 500 important paintings were moved to a museum in Moscow. From 1930 to 1934, some artworks from the Hermitage were sold to other countries. This included famous paintings like Raphael's Alba Madonna and Titian's Venus with a Mirror. In 1931, Andrew W. Mellon bought 21 artworks from the Hermitage. He later gave them to start the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Soviet ski troops by the portico during the Siege of Leningrad

During World War II, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, many collections were moved to safety. Two trains carried a large part of the artworks to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). The museum buildings were hit by bombs during the Siege of Leningrad. The museum opened an exhibition in November 1944. The moved collections were brought back in October 1945, and the museum reopened in November 1945.

In 1948, many Impressionist and modern art pieces were moved to the Hermitage. These included works by Matisse and Picasso.

On June 15, 1985, Rembrandt's painting Danaë was damaged at the museum. It was cut and had a liquid thrown on it. The painting was carefully restored by 1997. Now, Danaë is displayed behind special protective glass.

The Hermitage Since 1991

After 1991, it became known that some paintings moved by the Red Army in 1945 were at the Hermitage. In 1994, the Hermitage announced it had been holding a large collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from German private collections. An exhibition called "Hidden Treasures Revealed" opened in 1995. It showed 74 of these paintings for the first time. Some of these paintings are now on permanent display in the Winter Palace.

In 1993, the Russian government gave the eastern wing of the General Staff Building to the Hermitage. New exhibition rooms opened there in 1999. Since 2003, the Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace has been open to the public.

In 2004, the museum found another artwork that had been moved: Venus Disarming Mars by Rubens. This painting was once in a German palace. The museum director said it would be cleaned and displayed.

In July 2006, the museum announced that 221 smaller items had been stolen. These included jewelry and religious icons. By the end of 2006, several of the stolen items were found and returned.

In March 2020, Apple released a long film (over 5 hours) recorded on an iPhone 11 Pro. It showed many rooms of the museum, highlighting the art, architecture, and live performances.

Hermitage Locations Around the World

Deer golden plaque from Krasnodar, beginning of 6th century BC

The Hermitage Museum has opened several branches and exhibition centers in other cities and countries.

Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center

This Hermitage branch opened in Kazan, Russia, in 2005. It is located in the Kazan Kremlin.

Ermitage Italia, Ferrara

The Hermitage also has a partnership in Ferrara, Italy. This new group, called Ermitage Italia, works with the Hermitage on research and science projects.

Hermitage-Vyborg Center

The Hermitage-Vyborg Center opened in June 2010 in Vyborg, Russia.

Future Hermitage Centers

Branches are planned to open in Vladivostok and Omsk in Russia. There have also been ideas to open a museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. This museum would combine artworks from the Hermitage with those from the New York Guggenheim Museum.

Past Hermitage Locations

The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas, USA, was open from 2001 to 2008. The Hermitage Rooms in London, UK, were open from 2000 to 2007.

The Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, was known as the Hermitage Amsterdam. It opened in 2004 and moved to a larger building in 2009. After events in 2022, the Amsterdam Hermitage ended its ties with St. Petersburg. It was later renamed the H'ART Museum.

Museum Leadership

Hermitage Directors

Florian Gilles
Stepan Gedeonov (1863–78)
Alexander Vasilchikov (1879–88)
Sergei Nikitich Trubetskoi (1888–99)
Ivan Vsevolozhsky (1899–1909)
Dmitry Tolstoi (1909–1918)
Boris Legran (1931–1934)
Iosif Orbeli (1934–1951)
Mikhail Artamonov (1951–1964)
Boris Piotrovsky (1964–1990)
Mikhail Piotrovsky (1992–present)

Volunteer Service

The Hermitage Volunteer Service gives people a chance to help the museum. Volunteers assist with many activities inside and outside the museum. They also connect the museum experts with the public. Volunteers can create their own projects. They help young people understand the importance of preserving history and art.

Hermitage Cats

One of the Hermitage cats

A group of cats lives on the museum grounds. These cats are a popular attraction for visitors. They help keep the museum free of rodents.

Gallery

Ancient Egyptian: Limestone stele of a chief potter (18th century BC)
Ancient Near East: Urartu deity (7th–5th century BC)
Ancient Greek: Red-figure vase (5th century BC)
Ancient Steppes: Pazyryk horseman (3rd century BC)
Hellenistic: Gonzaga Cameo (3rd century BC)
Classical Near East: Palmyra Tariff (2nd century CE)
Ancient Roman: Bust of Lucius Verus (160–170)
Indian: statue of Buddha (2nd–3rd century)
Gothic: Anjou Legendarium (1330)
Early Renaissance: Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1490)
High Renaissance: Penitent Magdalene by Titian (1565)
Mannerism: Saint Peter and Saint Paul by El Greco (1592)
Italian Baroque: The Lute Player by Caravaggio (1596)
Spanish Baroque: The Lunch by Diego Velázquez (1617)
Flemish Baroque: Self-Portrait by Anthony van Dyck (1622–1623)
Classicism: Tancred and Herminia by Nicolas Poussin (1649)
English: Woman in Blue by Thomas Gainsborough (c. 1770s)
Rococo: The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (c. 1780)
Romanticism: Portrait of Antonia Zarate by Francisco Goya (1810)
Persian: Portrait of Fath Ali Shah (1813–1814)
Impressionism: Woman in the Garden by Claude Monet (1867)
Post-Impressionism: White House at Night by Vincent van Gogh (1890)
Post-Impressionism: The Overture to Tannhauser: The Artist's Mother and Sister by Paul Cézanne (1868)
Picasso's Rose Period: Femme au café (Absinthe Drinker) by Pablo Picasso (1901–02)
Proto-Cubism: Dryad, by Pablo Picasso (1908)
Maratha India: A Maratha Armor and Helmet
Abstract: Composition VI by Wassily Kandinsky (1913)