This staircase, designed in the mid-19th century by the architect Andrei Stakenschneider, connects three buildings - the Small, the Great and the New Hermitages. The entrance and the staircase owe their name to the meetings of the State Council held on the ground floor of the Great Hermitage in the mid-19th century. The stucco walls are adorned with panels and pilasters the shade of which is in harmony with the four monolith columns of red porphyry on top of the staircase, standing on the white marble bases. The technological innovation of that time - a metal framework, put in practice in the mid-19th century - enabled the architect to construct a staircase with high flights: the marble stairs were put on iron beams, covered with stucco ornaments. The wrought-iron balustrade, decorated with a tracery of plant scrolls characteristic of Stakenschneider's style, stresses the lightness of the structure.