The collection of the State Hermitage includes over 3 million works of art and world culture artefacts. It contains paintings, graphic works, sculptures, works of applied art, archaeological artefacts and numismatic objects.
The Hermitage is considered to have been founded in 1764, when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of works from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, St. Catherine’s Day.
The Hermitage:
The Main Museum Complex, Dvortsovaya Embankment, 32–38
- the Winter Palace (1754–1762, architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, reconstructed by Vasily Stasov after a fire in 1837);
- the Small Hermitage (1764 –1769, architects Yury Velten and Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe);
- the Great (Old) Hermitage (1771–1787, architect Yury Velten);
- the Hermitage Theatre (1783–1787, architect Giacomo Quarenghi);
- the New Hermitage (1842–1851, architect Leo von Klenze, construction supervised by Vasily Stasov and Nikolai Yefimov);
- Reserve House of the Winter Palace (1726–1742, 1830, 1878, architects Domenico Trezzini (?), О.Trezzini, N.Bekker)
The General Staff Building (former Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance building), Dvortsovaya Square, 6/8
1820–1830, architect Carlo Rossi
Menshikov Palace, Universitetskaya Embankment, 15
1710–1727, architects Giovanni Mario Fontana, Georg Schedel
The Winter Palace of Peter the Great, Dvortsovaya Embankment, 34
Located in the building of the Hermitage Theatre;
The Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Prospekt Obukhovskoi Oborony, 151
Located on the premises of the Imperial Porcelain Factory Ltd.
The Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre, Zausadebnaya Street, 37
The beginning of construction – 1990
The Old Stock Exchange, Birzhevaya Square, 4
1805-1810, architect Jean-François Thomas de Thomon
Exhibition Centres of the State Hermitage
- The Hermitage – Amsterdam Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- The Hermitage – Italy, Venice, Italy
- The Hermitage – Kazan Centre, Kazan, Russia
- The Hermitage – Vyborg Centre, Vyborg, Russia
Museum Space
Total area of the premises (buildings) – 233 345 sq. metres
Exhibition area – 100 000 sq. metres
Main Collections Entering the Museum since Its Foundation
1764 – Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky’s collection
1769 – Count Heinrich von Bruhl’s collection
1772 – Baron Pierre Crozat’s collection
1779 – Sir Robert Walpole’s collection
1781 – Count Baudouin’s collection
1787 – Cabinet of carved stones of Duke of Orleans
1814 – Paintings from the Malmaison Palace of Josephine Beauharnais
1861 – Marquis Gian Pietro Campana’s collection
1884 – Alexander Basilewsky’s collection
1885 – Collection of the Arsenal in Tsarskoye Selo (now the town of Pushkin)
1910 – Pyotr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky’s collection
After 1918 the Hermitage also received the socialized collections of the Russian aristocratic families Sheremetev, Stroganoff, Shuvalov, Yusupov and others
1935 – collection of the former Museum of the Baron Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing
1948 - collections of late-19th – early-20th century European paintings of Sergei Shchukin, Ivan Morozov and others
1950 – collection of banners and banners’ accessories, banners’ graphics, the archives from the Artillery Historic Museum
2001 – collection of the Lomonosov (Imperial) Porcelain Factory
The State Hermitage Museum inventory contains 3 150 428 items (as of December 31, 2016)
1 125 975 – numismatic objects;
808 695 – archaeological artefacts;
625 889 – graphic works;
358 938 – works of applied art;
60 521 – photos;
17 165 – paintings;
14 016 – arms and armoury;
12 814 – sculptures;
2 853 – documents;
2 609 – history of technology and techniques objects;
360 – rare books;
295 – printed materials;
148 133 – other items.
Status of the Hermitage
In a Decree by the President of the Russian Federation dated 18 December 1991 the State Hermitage Museum was included into a list of the objects of national heritage belonging to all the people of the Russian Federation. In a Decree by the President of the Russian Federation dated 12 June 1996 the State Hermitage Museum was placed under personal patronage of the President of the Russian Federation.
In a Decree (No. 984) dated 29 November 2011 the new Statutes of the State Hermitage Museum, as a federal government funded institution, were approved. According to the Statutes the Government of the Russian Federation is to act as the museum founder.
In honour of the State Hermitage Museum, according to the Official Certificate of the International Astronomic Association and the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences dated 11 April 1997, a minor planet registered in the International Catalogue of Minor Planets under No. 4758 was named Hermitage.
Official Names
The State Hermitage Museum Federal Government Funded Cultural Institution;
The State Hermitage Museum; The Hermitage
Legal Address
34 Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya (Dvortsovaya Embankment), 190000 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation