The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

Day of the March Cat in the Hermitage - 2007

On 30 March 2007, the State Hermitage celebrated the Day of the March Cat, a museum tradition honoring cats living in the museum.

It is widely known that four-legged hunters of rodents first appeared in the Winter Palace under Peter the Great, who brought cats with him from Holland. According to one legend, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna placed an order in Kazan for a shipment of cats especially skilled at catching mice. Somewhat later additional cats were brought in at the behest of Catherine the Great to serve as guardians of the picture galleries following her complaints about the abundance of rodents in her quarters.

At present 50 cats of both sexes live in the Hermitage. As ‘service providers' in the museum, they work round the clock to ensure that the basement premises are free of rodents, and in compensation for their labor they are fed, given medical attention and are shown respect by the employees and guests of the Hermitage. Today's museum cats exist thanks to the contributions of staff. Twice a month, those who so wish donate what they can to the cats' budget. The money is used to feed the cats and, if necessary, to buy medicine. A Foundation of Friends of the Hermitage Cats was created several years ago and it collects money for cat food and for medical treatment. It also arranges a variety of events and fairs devoted to the whiskered and fluffy guardians of the country's largest museum.

From 30 March through 8 April 2007, the Exhibition Hall of the State Hermitage's Youth Education Center on Moyka Embankment, 45 will display a book by Mary Ann Allen and Maria Haltunen entitled Anna and the Cats, or An Adventure in the Hermitage, with illustrations by Anatoly Belkin and Mariana Sokolinskaya. The book is intended for children of pre-school age.

In the period just prior to the Day of the March Cat, the State Hermitage held a number of competitions for children who are studying in art schools, drawing classes, boarding schools and orphanages of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, as well as for students in the city's institutions of higher learning. The results were announced on 30 March during the presentation of the book and exhibition of illustrations in the Hermitage's Youth Center. The festivities ended with an event called "We draw along with the author. Everything about cats...." - in the course of which all those who came to the Youth Center on this day could create their own works devoted to the "whiskered and hairy" friends.

At the opening of the exhibition

Mme Kudryavtseva, Head of Department of the Hermitage-s Youth Educational Centre sector

Boris Kravchunas, Head of the Drawing Studio of the State Hermiage

First visitors

Handing out the commemorative presents

At the exhibition