Stepping into the Hermitage Museum feels like crossing a threshold between centuries. Light spills down the Jordan Staircase from crystal chandeliers, skating across white marble and gold scrollwork; angels hover overhead, suspended mid-blessing. For a moment, it’s easy to imagine the echo of silk gowns, courtly laughter, and the low murmur of intrigue from Catherine the Great’s glittering evenings.
Second only to the Louvre in scale, it remains unmistakably Russian—opulent, defiant, and intimate all at once. Local guide Maria Zotova likes to begin with a fact that humbles even the most seasoned museumgoer. The Hermitage isn’t one building but six—the Winter Palace, the Small, Old and New Hermitages, the Hermitage Theatre, and the Menshikov Palace—stitched together by corridors, staircases and more than 18,000 doors. Inside are over three million artworks and artefacts, from ancient mummies to imperial regalia. “Even spending one minute with each piece,” she says, “would take over eleven years.”
The story begins modestly. In 1764, Catherine bought 255 mostly Dutch and Flemish paintings from a Berlin dealer and tucked them into a private retreat she called her “hermitage.” “Few visitors, only me and the mice,” she joked. The collection grew as her ambition did. By 1852, it had burst beyond palace walls. And the New Hermitage—Russia’s first purpose-built public museum—came into existance.
Today, the Winter Palace remains the Hermitage’s grand overture. Mint-green and gold, it gleams like a jewel box. Designed in Russian Baroque for Empress Elizabeth in 1754, it became the theatre of Romanov life—celebrations, griefs, and power plays unfolding across more than 1,500 rooms. Catherine ruled from here, refashioning interiors to her taste; exotic blooms flourished indoors even in winter, thanks to advanced heating. Beyond the Jordan Staircase lies the Armorial Hall, all Corinthian columns and blazing chandeliers.
Each palace has its own temperament. The Small Hermitage retains Catherine’s private hush; the Old Hermitage opens onto the Renaissance with works by Leonardo, Raphael and Rembrandt; the New Hermitage anchors antiquity beneath granite columns. Across Palace Square, the General Staff Building shifts the mood to modernism—Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso—proof that the Hermitage refuses to be frozen in time.