The State Hermitage Museum

A museum of art and culture may be found in Saint Petersburg, Russia, called the State Hermitage Museum. By gallery space, it is the biggest art museum in the whole globe. When Empress Catherine the Great purchased an extraordinary collection of paintings from Berlin businessman Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, it was established in 1764. Every year on December 7, Saint Catherine's Day, the museum commemorates the day of its creation. Since 1852, it has been accessible to the public. With 1,649,443 visits in 2021, The Art Newspaper rated the museum sixth on their ranking of the most popular art museums.

Over three million artifacts make up its holdings, of which only a tiny portion are displayed consistently (the numismatic collection accounts for about one-third of them). The collections are housed in a sizable complex made up of six old buildings on Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, which served as the Russian monarchs' former home. In addition to these, the museum also includes the Menshikov Palace, the Museum of Porcelain, the Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building. The museum has a number of overseas exhibiting venues. The Hermitage is a piece of federally owned land. Director of the museum since July 1992 is Mikhail Piotrovsky.

Five of the six structures that make up the major museum complex—the Hermitage Theatre, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, and Winter Palace—are accessible to the general public. Foreign visitors must pay a higher admission price than Russian and Belarussian nationals. On the third Thursday of every month, however, admission is free for everyone, and it is free every day for kids and students. On Mondays, the museum is closed. The Winter Palace's entrance is situated there and is reachable from the Courtyard.

Detailed information:

• Founded: 1764
• State Hermitage Location: Saint Petersburg, Russia
• State Hermitage Annual Visitors: 4,294,000 million