Hermitage museum

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The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest museums in the world, with 3 million works of art

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest museums in the world, with 3 million works of art (not all on display at once), and one of the oldest art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world. The vast Hermitage collections are displayed in six buildings, the main one being the Winter Palace which used to be the official residence of the Russian Tsars. International branches of The Hermitage Museum are located in Amsterdam, London, and Las Vegas.
The basic display areas of the State Hermitage occupy 365 rooms in the Main Museum Complex located in the historic centre of St Petersburg. This consists of six buildings constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries, among which the most important is the Winter Palace, the former imperial residence. The Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage and the New Hermitage display the collections of monuments of culture and art of the ancient world, Western Europe, Russia and the countries of the Orient, as well as archeological and numismatic collections. The Hermitage Theatre and the Reserve House also form part of the Main Museum Complex.
Exhibition Complexes of the State Hermitage:
The Winter Palace of Peter the Great is a unique architectural monument dating from the first quarter of the 18th century (Georg Mattarnovi, Domenico Trezzini, architects). The official residence of Peter I between 1720 and 1725 was located on the territory now occupied by the Hermitage Theatre. In the part of the palace which has been preserved, there is a memorial exhibit dedicated to Peter the Great and his age. In his rooms - the study, dining room and turnery - the decor has been recreated using genuine articles that belonged to the Emperor. Here the so-called 'wax effigy,' a posthumous sculptural portrait of Peter I, has been put on display.
The palace of St Petersburg's first Governor, Alexander Menshikov, was erected on Vasilyevsky Island in the 1710s-1720s according to architectural plans drawn up by Giovanni Fontana and Gottfried Shaedel. The Hermitage exhibition entitled "Russian Culture in the First Third of the 18th Century" is located in the Menshikov Palace. Works of fine as well as decorative and applied arts from the Hermitage collection recreate the original interior decoration of Peter the Great's time.
The Museum of Porcelain was created in 1844 as part of the Imperial Porcelain Factory. Since 2001 it has been a department of the State Hermitage. The collection includes more than 30,000 objects made in the Imperial Porcelain Factory from the 18th to the 20th century, as well as porcelain by European and domestic manufacturers.
The architectural and park ensemble of the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna once belonged to members of the Romanov family. Now it forms the Palace of Congresses state complex. Within the palace, the State Hermitage has an exhibition area including the Museum of Awards, which displays state medals and orders of Russia, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, and the Museum of Heraldry devoted primarily to Russian heraldry pertaining to the state, family genealogy and territories.

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