State Hermitage Museum

Foundation of the museum

The foundation date of the Hermitage is considered to be 1764, when Catherine II acquired a collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant I.-E. Gotskovsky.

The museum celebrates its founding day every year on December 7 – St. Catherine’s Day.

Main museum complex

Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, Hermitage Theater, New Hermitage (Palace Embankment, 32–38)

Exhibition complexes of the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Winter Palace of Peter I (Palace Embankment, 34; in the building of the Hermitage Theater), Menshikov Palace (University Embankment, 15); the eastern wing of the building and the arch of the General Staff building (Dvortsovaya Square, 6–8); Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, located on the territory of the Imperial Porcelain Factory (Obukhovskaya Oborona Avenue, 151)

Restoration and storage center of the State Hermitage "Staraya Derevnya" (Zausadebnaya street, 37)

Museum buildings
Winter Palace. 1754–1762
Architect F.-B. Rastrelli
After the fire of 1837, it was restored under the leadership of V.P. Stasova

Small Hermitage. 1764 –1769
Architects Yu.M. Felten, J.-B. Wallen-Delamote

Old (Great) Hermitage. 1771–1787
Architect Yu.M. Felten

Hermitage Theater. 1783–1787
Architect G. Quarenghi

New Hermitage. 1842–1851
Project by architect L. von Klenze, erected under the guidance of architects V. P. Stasov and N. E. Efimov

Spare house of the Winter Palace. 1726–1742, 1830, 1878
Architects D. Trezzini (?), O. Trezzini, N. F. Becker

Menshikov Palace. 1710–1727
Architects J.-M. Fontana, G. Schedel

General Headquarters (former building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance). 1820–1830
Architect K. Rossi

Complex of buildings of the Restoration and Storage Center "Staraya Derevnya"
Start of construction - 1990

Exhibition space

The total area of ​​premises (buildings) is 233,345 sq. m. m
Exhibition area 66,842 sq. m

Centers of the State Hermitage

"Hermitage - Amsterdam"
Netherlands, Amsterdam

"Hermitage - Kazan"
Russia, Kazan

"Hermitage - Vyborg"
Russia, Vyborg

The most significant collections received by the museum since its founding

1764 – collection of I.-E. Gotskovsky
1769 – collection of Count G. Bruhl
1772 – collection of Baron P. Crozat
1779 – meeting of Lord R. Walpole
1781 – collection of Count F. Baudouin
1787 – Cabinet of carved stones of the Duke of Orleans
1814 – paintings from the Malmaison Palace by Josephine Beauharnais
1861 – collection of the Marquis J.-P. Campana
1884 – collection of A.P. Bazilevsky
1885 – Tsarskoye Selo Arsenal
1910 – collection of P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky
After 1918, the museum received nationalized collections of the Sheremetevs, Stroganovs, Shuvalovs, Yusupovs and others
1935 – collection of the museum of the Central School of Technical Drawing (A. L. Stieglitz)
1948 – collection of new European painting of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, mainly from the collections of S.I. Shchukin and I.A. Morozov
1950 – collection of banners and banner accessories, banner graphics, archive from the Artillery Historical Museum
2001 – collection of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory Museum

Composition of collections as of January 1, 2013

There are 3,106,071 exhibits registered in the State Hermitage:
works of painting 16,903
graphic works 622 452
sculptures 12,798
works of applied art 357 725
archaeological sites 751 045
numismatic monuments 1,122,769
rare books 341
weapons 13,954
documents 56,899
items of history of technology 3017
printed items 270
other exhibits 147,898

Official name
Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture "State Hermitage";
State Hermitage Museum; Hermitage

Legal address
Russia, 190000, St. Petersburg, Palace embankment, 34

Status of the Hermitage

By decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 18, 1991, the State Hermitage was included in the list of especially valuable objects of the national heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation. According to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of June 12, 1996, the State Hermitage is under the patronage of the President of the Russian Federation.

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 984 of November 29, 2011 approved the new charter of the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture "State Hermitage". In accordance with the charter, the founder of the State Hermitage is the Government of the Russian Federation.

In honor of the State Hermitage, according to the Official Certificate of the International Astronomical Union and the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences dated April 11, 1997, the minor planet registered in the International Catalog of Minor Planets under No. 4758 received the name Hermitage.