A world-class museum evolved from a luxurious tsarist palace — the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg

Written/Compiled & Reported by Li Xinyi, MOOK Travel Life Network | Source/MOOK Editorial Department

The Winter Palace is now officially known as the State Hermitage Museum and is the most important destination for all travelers visiting St. Petersburg. Located on Palace Square, it was originally the imperial palace of the Russian tsars. After the October Revolution, it was opened to the general public and officially named the State Hermitage Museum. The building itself is not only an outstanding example of mid-18th-century Russian Baroque architecture, but its astonishing collection of artworks also ranks it among the world's four major museums, alongside the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

According to historical records, the entire Winter Palace complex was founded during the reign of Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. Empress Elizabeth was a highly determined woman. Having lived in Germany for a long time, her thinking and style were very Europeanized. After ascending the throne, she continued the unfinished ambitions of her father. She undertook large-scale construction in St. Petersburg, with many buildings completed during this period, the most notable of which was the Winter Palace.

Empress Elizabeth commissioned the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli to oversee the construction of the Winter Palace. It took eight years, from 1754 to 1762, to complete, becoming a masterpiece of Russian Baroque architecture. From its completion until 1917, the Winter Palace served as a prestigious royal residence. Following Empress Elizabeth, another key figure in the expansion of the Winter Palace was Catherine the Great. To demonstrate her power, Empress Catherine continuously amassed a vast collection of artworks of various kinds during her 34-year reign (1762–1796), including 16,000 coins and medals. In the early 20th century, the socialist revolution spared the Winter Palace Museum and its collections, which had once displayed the glory of the empire. Instead of destroying them, many privately confiscated collections were centralized into the palace, greatly increasing the holdings of the Hermitage Museum.

The Hermitage Museum has a vast floor area, and its collections can be broadly categorized into paintings, sculptures, jewelry, furniture, ancient coins, and archaeological artifacts. Beyond the collections, one must not overlook the interior décor of its various palace rooms. The total length of the museum’s exhibition corridors adds up to nearly 20 kilometers, with a total of about 3 million exhibits on display. The number of imperial rooms and palaces alone exceeds 1,000. Given a short visit of just a few hours, it is already difficult to tour every hall of the Hermitage Museum, let alone examine in detail the masterpieces created by great artists. Given the scale of the Hermitage Museum, at least two full days are essential to appreciate all its content thoroughly.

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