The Hermitage

The Hermitage has 365 halls and around three million objects in six connected buildings. Wandering on your own, it is easy to spend two hours on staircases and miss half the masterpieces. This tour gives you a tested route, tickets already in hand, and a guide who works only with your party of up to six.

The route

Palace Square. You meet at the Alexander Column. Before going in, your guide explains how the square was shaped and what the Winter Palace meant to the imperial family.

The state rooms. You enter by the Jordan Staircase, Rastrelli’s gilded baroque, rebuilt by Vasily Stasov after the fire of 1837. Then come the ceremonial halls: the Field Marshals’ Hall, the Peter the Great Hall, the Armorial Hall and St George’s Hall. The 1812 Military Gallery holds more than three hundred portraits of the generals who defeated Napoleon.

The Small Hermitage. The Pavilion Hall, with crystal chandeliers, a mosaic floor and a view of the Hanging Garden, is home to the Peacock Clock by James Cox. It was Potemkin’s gift to Catherine II and is the only large eighteenth-century automaton that still works.

The painting galleries. In the Italian rooms are two Madonnas by Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione’s Judith, Caravaggio’s Lute Player, and the Crouching Boy, the only sculpture by Michelangelo in Russia. The Raphael Loggias are a full copy of the Vatican gallery made for Catherine II. Next come El Greco, Velázquez and Goya in the Spanish rooms. The visit ends with Rembrandt and The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Along the way you will hear how the collection began in 1764 with 317 paintings bought by Catherine II, how a million objects were evacuated in the first weeks of the war, and why cats still guard the palace cellars.

Good to know

• The tour lasts about 2.5 hours and starts at a time agreed with you.
• It is private, for groups of up to six people.
• Entry tickets are included, and you go in without joining the general queue.
• After the tour you are welcome to stay in the museum on your own.
• Meals are not included.

Who it suits

First-time visitors who want the highlights without getting lost, art lovers who would like to spend longer with particular painters, and families or small groups who prefer a guide to themselves.