According to the original concept of the architect Leo von Klenze, this room was to be the main vestibule of the Imperial Museum or New Hermitage. The room is covered by a vault with moulded decoration and embellished by arched loggias and white marble columns. The walls were faced with artificial marble, but before they were constructed the Kolyvan Vase was placed in the room. The vase was designed by the architect Abraham Melnikov and made from jasper in 1843 at the Kolyvan Lapidary Works. It weighs 19 tonnes and is 2.57 metres high. The room also contains works from the age of Emperors Trajan and Hadrian (late 1st - early 2nd centuries A.D.), part of the Hermitage's magnificent collection of Roman sculptural portraits.
