The Hermitage was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great purchased a collection of Flemish and Dutch paintings from a Berlin merchant. Today, the Museum and its related services are housed in ten buildings, the largest of which is the unforgettable dusty green coloured Winter Palace, the Rastrelli-designed residence of the Russian Emperors and Empresses from 1762 until 1917.

The First Floor of the Hermitage houses the antiquity collection, oriental art and pre-historic art. This is why the Hermitage is a 'Museum' and not just a Gallery: it has an astounding collection of historical treasures. At the entrance, bear right for the antiquity works or left for prehistoric culture. The exhibition rooms of the antiquity works (101-131) are elaborately decorative and beautiful, with hefty and imposing columns, mosaic tiled floors and exquisitely decorated ceilings; apt for the grand ancient works they contain within them. They offer a remarkably varied collection of Roman art, spanning 1st Century BC to 4th Century AD. Sculptural portraits – genuine and ancient busts of statespeople and other individuals – dominate, but the highlight is the enormous statue of Emperor Augustus as Jupiter from 1st Century BC.

Strolling into Ancient Egypt, housed in Room 100, marvel at the earthenware vessels, flint tools, mummies and figurines from the 4th century BC to 6th century AD which are so well preserved it’s difficult to believe that they are real. The pre-historic collection exhibits relics from the Metal Age, retrieved from a burial ground in the North Caucasus. The exhibition of the culture of Altaic peoples and Scythians includes applied art made by the Greeks or imported from the Orient. The treasure gallery is composed of the Gold Rooms, with work from 7th Century to 19th Century Eurasia, the Black Sea and the Orient. The Diamond Rooms traces the development of the jeweller’s craft from 3rd millennium BC until modern day.


The Second Floor is an intoxicating journey through Western European art, with Palace interior rooms and Russian culture exhibits tossed in for good measure. The rooms of nineteenth to twentieth century work include masters such as Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. 'Must-sees' include Room 145 showing pivotal figures in the genre of impressionism, featuring various Manet works and several by Monet, including the stunning ‘Woman in a Garden’. Room 146 focuses on Renoir’s saccharine works gleaming with colour and light. (He is indeed remembered for saying, ´Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world´). Room 143 is dedicated to Gaugin with his dark and bold experimental style that paved the way to ‘primitivism’, a return to passion and nature after the gentle hues of impressionism; and Van Gogh, the pioneer of expressionism: art that evokes intense emotion. The work of Cezanne, whom Picasso and Matisse dubbed ‘the father of us all,’ is found in Room 144, depicting the journey from nineteenth century impressionism to twentieth century cubism.

Other second-floor treats include some gorgeous Dutch landscape works in Room 249 and dark, brooding Spanish works in Rooms 239-240. The Italian art rooms are also exquisite, for example the Tiepolo Hall displays Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s eighteenth century grand decorative works, Room 211 shows work by child of the Renaissance, Botticini and Room 214 features possibly the greatest painter of all time, Leonardo da Vinci and his iconic ‘Madonna Litta’. The selection of Russian culture and Palace Interior rooms is vast, but does not demand the same longevity of concentration, so breeze through these (Rooms 157-187 for culture; and intermittent Interior rooms) with admiring looks and wistful sighs.


The Third Floor of the Hermitage is divided between European art of the nineteenth to twentieth century (within which French art is the only sub-category), Byzantium and the East and finally, numismatics. The Western European and American art rooms are varied and exciting but the vast selection of French art is certainly the highlight. Here, you will find more Cezanne (in Room 318), more Monet (Room 319), and more Renoir (320) before the introduction of some new genii, including a fantastic range of Matisse’s work in Rooms 343-345. His unique and evocative use of colour and form make ‘The Dance’ and ‘The Conversation’ unforgettable works. Picasso, the master of cubism, is introduced from Room 348 with incredible paintings such as ‘Two Sisters’ and ‘Three Women’. Fernand Léger and Albert Marquet adorn Room 350, which serves as the cradle of abstraction, with cubist views and bold colours. These are (deservedly) some of the most popular rooms of the whole Museum.

From Room 351 we enter Byzantium and the East. These rooms are often unnumbered and are the least well labelled in English language than any others in the museum. Nevertheless, in the ancient east rooms, the wall hangings depicting Chinese legends and mythology are especially intriguing. For those with a deeper interest in historical matters, there is a thorough display of ancient Chinese pots, tomb figurines and silk fabrics, dating from 3000BC to 200AD. There are also displays of different schools of Japanese applied arts: figurines, furniture, wall hangings and ornaments. Alongside beautiful silk decorative works (that one can’t help thinking look similar to those in Ikea) sit ceramic artifacts and tools, which serve to emphasise the incredible heritage of the artistic treasures. We enter Mongolian culture of the fifteenth to nineteenth century in room 365, with wall hangings and ornaments.

Moving to India, the period of the 1st century BC to the 14th century is covered with intricately patterned furniture, swords and armour and a ‘dark room’ of beautiful miniature sketches of Hindu gods. From room 381, you can find remnants from 4th to 15th Century Byzantium including icons, metalwork and ivory crafts. The 4th Century jewellery in room 382 is astounding in its mere survival, not to speak of its beauty. The Near and Middle East rooms contain masterpieces from the 7th to 19th Century. The Museum is particularly proud of the Iranian pottery, Persian painting, Egyptian applied arts, Syrian artifacts and Turkish textiles. A real playground for those drawn to metallic shiny things but less than fun for high-brow Art crits (or the easily bored), the numismatic rooms (those dedicated to coins, medals, orders and the like) are packed full of more than 100,000 coins and 75,000 medals. It has the world’s richest collection of Russian medals and an assortment of badges, which are, many insist, akin to works of art.