10: The Open Repository of the Department of the East

The display of the open repository of the Department of the East features a Turkish state tent. It was a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) to Empress Catherine II after the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1789-91. Tents were used mainly during the Turks' many military campaigns. Certain important events of the Ottoman court also took place in them: in tent towns the Sultan would receive the ambassadors of foreign powers, hold military parades, watch his subjects in sporting competitions and games and carry out the execution of people who had incurred his disfavour. The production, maintenance and storage of tents, as well as their deployment in field conditions, was the task of a special militarized institution, created in 1478 by Mehmed II (1432-1481), the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople in 1453.
The display also includes a wooden sculpture of the Garuda bird that was given to the State Hermitage in 2003 by the President of Indonesia.