Санкт-Петербург --- Part 3 --- Эрмитаж (The Hermitage)

Добрый день, друзья и семья

So after my short vacation from blogging I have returned with part 3 of Saint Petersburg...woot! This post is all about the Эрмитаж (The Hermitage) Museum. It is basically a giant art museum on Palace Square in Petersburg. I heard from someone (not sure if this is accurate or not) that if you spent 10 minutes in each room of the Hermitage it would take over a week to see everything! Of course, I am not huge on the whole art-scene so there are no pictures of any paintings from the museum...sorry. Ha.

First, once again to bore you to death, some brief history about the Hermitage: it was constructed under orders of Catherine the Great and founded in 1764. It is one of the oldest museums in the world and has a collection of over 3 million items. It also boasts the largest collection of paintings in the world. Originally the main building of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, was a palace of the tsars. The museum has been open to the public since 1852.

Alright, tried to keep it short. Here ya go...

View of Palace Square (Дворцовая Площадь). The focal point of the square is the columnknown as The Alexander Column (Александровская Колонна). Fun facts: 47.5 meters tall (155 ft 8 in). It is so heavy and perfectly set that it is not attached to the pedestal, basically it is just resting.

View of the Winter Palace (Зимний Дворец).

Entrance to the Winter Place//The Hermitage.

Again, the Winter Palace...really quite impressive.

Inside one of the rooms in the Palace.

The throne inside of the Winter Palace.

This is a mosaic floor inside one of the rooms in the palace. It is based on some mosaic from ancient Rome.

View from the Winter Palace to Peter and Paul Fortress across the Neva River.

Once of the beautiful hallways inside the Palace.

View of Palace Square from the Winter Palace.

And finally a group photo! Can you find me?? Just kidding, it's impossible to miss me. Ha

Well that ends part 3 of the tour. More to come soon. And for all of you out there who are not counting down, only 10 days until my return to the states.

Пока!