The gorgeous Winter Palace was once the private museum of Empress Catherine II, and now it is one of the four largest museums in the world along with the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. There are more than 3 million collections in the museum, all of which are works of art from home and abroad, such as oil paintings, statues, carpets, furniture and handicrafts. There are 400 exhibition halls and showrooms, including ancient Greek bottle painting art, ancient Roman art The three-part collection of sculpture art and Western European art is well-known in the world collection circle. The Winter Palace was built in 1754, covering an area of 90,000 square meters and a total of 1,057 rooms. It is a very distinctive Russian Baroque building in St. Petersburg. Here, the gorgeous grand palace with green walls and white columns decorated with golden reliefs unfolds in a row, magnificent yet calm. The exhibition is divided into 7 parts: primitive cultural history, ancient Greek and Roman culture and art, oriental national culture and art, Russian culture, Western European art history, coins, and crafts. It is 30 kilometers long, so it is known as the longest art gallery in the world. Not to be missed: The Mummy of Egypt (Room 100), The Peacock Clock (Room 204), Leonardo da Vinci's "Portrait of the Virgin" (Room 214), Rembrandt's "The Return of the Prodigal Son" (Room 254), Rubens' Perseus and Andromeda (Hall 246), Raphael Promenade (Hall 227). Halls 333-350 on the second floor contain many art treasures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including masterpieces by Matisse and Picasso, which are worth a visit.
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Show More ReviewsThe Hermitage Museum (commonly known as the Winter Palace Museum) is one of the world's four major museums, alongside the British Museum in London, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Located on the banks of the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Hermitage Museum was originally the private residence of Empress Catherine II. In 1764, Catherine II purchased 225 paintings by artists such as Rembrandt and Rubens from Berlin and stored them in the Hermitage (French for "hidden palace") within the Winter Palace, hence the museum's name. The Winter Palace Museum first opened to the public in 1852. The museum comprises the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage, the Hermitage Theatre, the Winter Palace Reserves, and the New Hermitage, covering a total area of 233,000 square meters and a building area of 1.3 million square meters. It has 550 exhibition halls, with an actual exhibition area of approximately 120,000 square meters. The museum houses over 3 million items, encompassing works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Titian, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Picasso, and Matisse. The Far Eastern Art Museum on the third floor contains Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions, samples of Dunhuang sculptures and murals, and Chinese calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain, earning it the reputation of a "world-class museum that is an encyclopedia of world culture and art." Since the 18th century, the museum has kept cats to control rodents, and since 1998, April 6th has been designated "Cat Day" in commemoration.