St. Petersburg: The Hermitage, Part 1

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The first picture is of the Winter Palace, the former Imperial residence that is now the main building housing the Hermitage Museum. Commissioned in 1754 by Empress Elizabeth from an Italian architect, this Baroque/Rococo palace has more than 1,000 rooms and more than 100 staircases – and now more than 3 million works of art collected by a succession of Russian emperors, and spanning from the Stone Age to the 20th century. As can be seen in the other pictures, what is unusual about this museum is the lavish decoration of its floors, walls and ceilings, such that oftentimes one’s eye – and one’s camera – focuses on the beauty of the palace itself rather than on the magnificent works of art on display.