Individual tour to the Hermitage

• Applications to the excursion are accepted at least 3 days prior excursion day.
• Tour round The Main museum complex of The Hermitage
• After the tour - free time to explore the exhibitions on your own

The Hermitage is one of the most remarkable sights of St. Petersburg which is a must to visit. This museum, located in the very heart of the Northern Capital, can well be called the most famous place of interest of the city. It makes Russia famous all over the world with thousands of tourists visiting its halls annually.

Tour for the art lovers

Tourists from many countries and from every Russian city come to St. Petersburg to visit the famous Winter Palace and discover the exhibitions of The Hermitage. Indeed, it is not possible to see all the exhibits in one or even several days.

Did you know that:

• Once the entry to The Hermitage was open only to noblemen. However, their visit was restricted by strict rules. A dress-code was obligatory: dress coat for military officers and tailcoat for civils. It was strictly prohibited to enter the museum in casual clothes.

The entry was by invitation only. Even Pushkin could enter The Hermitage only after his friend V. Zhukovsky (tutor of son of Nickolas I) has given him a termless pass. The museum was opened to the public in 1852.

• By decree of Tsar Nickolas I in 1844, the construction of buildings in St. Petersburg higher than The Winter Palace was prohibited.

Genuine maestros

You can find here original artworks of Rembrandt, Picasso, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinchi and many other artists. But it is not only artistic masterpieces that attract the tourists’ interest to The Hermitage. The famous museum hosts different exhibitions which symbolize milestones in the history of humanity: famous sculptures, the widest collections of coins, military decorations, suits of armour, diverse archaeological finds and so on.

Interesting facts about the unparalleled Hermitage

1. One third of the total exhibit items was not preserved to this day. It is this very collection that was once at the heart of the museum.

2. Focusing your attention on each of the masterpieces of the museum, you will have a true aesthetic pleasure having spent no less than 8 years and walked more than 20 km in total.

3. After an attack committed by a mentally unstable person, who threw sulfuric acid on the canvas of Rembrandt’s Danae, the process of restoring the canvas took 20 years. Today you can admire the painting only through the thick protection glass.

4. It is in The Hermitage that you can see the only sculpture by Michelangelo in Russia. And it is the famous Crouching Boy sculpture.

5. The Hermitage was not always a green color. It was yellow, red and even pink back in the days.

6. A Dutch fine art expert visited the museum in 1960s. His visit was an official one and it involved giving lectures to citizens of Leningrad. After yet another lecture, he was drinking tea in one of the store rooms of The Hermitage and he saw a piece of canvas behind the wardrobe. Just imagine how amused he was when he recognized the masterpiece of painting Bacchus, Venus and Ceres by Hendrick Goltzius. In 2005 the canvas was presented to the public after restoration.

You will get to know more details about The Hermitage during the excursion. The glorious Hermitage with its diversity will never let you get bored at least because it regularly hosts marvelous temporary exhibitions. The Hermitage is always full of amusing stories and unexpected surprises even though it has more than hundred years of history.