Musuem Madness

The Hermitage – aka the Winter Palace, stands along the Neva River in the centre of St. Petersburg and has on its other side Palace Square. The square has in its centre a huge monument dedicated to the Russian defeat of Napoleon in 1812 and is where Bloody Sunday took place in 1905 (which began the 1905 revolution), and again in 1917 was the scene of the storming of the Winter Palace during the October Revolution! (so much history) The Palace itself was the principle home of Peter the Great. During the reign of Catherine the Great (who purchased boatloads of art) it was turned into a gallery, later opened to the public during the reign of Nicolas I. Beginning the October Revolution, the famous cruiser the Aurora fired a blank shot signaling Lenin’s Red Guards to attack. A bit of damage was done to the building, but very quickly the Provisional Government who had been occupying the building was arrested. Today, the Hermitage is made up of five linked buildings and contains ridiculous amounts of art. We spent several hours there and still only saw a fraction of what is on display. Because we have Russian student identification, we get in for free so we intend to go back. We saw only one half of the first floor, which houses the Egyptian artifacts, and then Greek and Roman art. Although we found the exhibits interesting, there is far too much to take in, hundreds of artifacts and pieces of art. However, I very much enjoyed looking through the numerous rooms which contained the Greek artworks. Last semester I took a course on Greek Mythology and so I tested myself to see if I could correctly guess which mythological figure each marble statue was before reading the plaques. We saw several Aphrodites, Eros, many Apollos, Artemis, Zeus, Dionysus and on and on! It was fantastic. What we were both most interested in, instead of the art, was the architecture of the building. The rooms themselves are giant works of art impossible to describe. Every room was different from the last, with marble tiled floors, huge pillars, elaborately carved/sculpted/plastered ceilings, or with mosaic painted ceilings . . . absolutely unbelievable and there are hundreds and hundreds of rooms! I cannot wait to go back to see more of the building, to see the European Art (there are artworks by Rembrant, Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gough, Matisse and so many others who are less known to me but I am sure are just as remarkable). It is absolutely awing to be in the presence of some of these artworks (ones from Greece which were sculpted nearly 2000 years ago, ones from famous artists like those I mentioned above) all while in one of the most historical buildings in all of Russia. Every square inch of the place is bursting with history (I am in heaven): the ceremonial hall (which has no less than 28 chandeliers), the apartments of the last tsar of Russia Nicholas II and his family (including the mythical Anastasia), the Jordan Staircase (google it! Trust me), the diningroom where the Bolsheviks arrested the Provisional Government (how I love early Soviet history), the Great Hall where massive parties were hosted, the throne room, the cathedral where many of the royals were married, and other rooms which Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and a host of other Russian royals ate, slept, entertained, etc. I could spend years wandering the halls of the Hermitage!