Guest Author - Sandy Hemphill

From 1762 until her death in 1796, Catherine II, Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias (Catherine the Great), ruled over a land that had been isolated from Europe and the rest of the world for many generations. Her mission to modernize and strengthen Russian sovereignty left a lasting legacy on many fronts. Her insatiable desire to amass the best art collection in the world is the basis for two of the world’s most fascinating museums, with exhibits that range from priceless paintings, drawings, and books to engraved gems, ancient coins, rare meteorites, and truly unique objects of art. No visit to St. Petersburg is complete without a tour of these two museums.

The Hermitage Museum began as an extension to the Winter Palace, official home of all Russian Tsars between 1732 to 1917. Catherine’s collection began as the purchase of 225 paintings a German art merchant had intended to sell to Frederick II of Prussia. Once in Catherine’s possession, the collection needed a home. She commissioned Yury Velten with the task of erecting the extension, completed in 1766, but this was only the first of several larger extensions that would be built in the following years.

During her lifetime, Catherine’s art collection grew to include as many as 4,000 Old Master paintings, more than 10,000 sketches and drawings, 10,000 engraved gems, and as many as 38,000 books. Her collection included 16,000 medals and coins and enough natural history artifacts to fill two entire galleries. Ancient Roman marble sculptures and columns and loggias decorated with frescoes replicated from the Vatican were added by 1780.

Hermitage Museum exhibits on display today include Egyptian and Classical antiquities, prehistoric art, various artworks from the Italian Renaissance, fine art from Spain and Italy, paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque periods, as well as art from the Neoclassical, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist art movements. Russian art is on display along with art from all parts of the earth.

Catherine’s jewelry collection has grown so vast over the last 250 years that it now takes four small but very heavily guarded rooms to showcase it all. This one-of-a-kind jewelry collection includes jewelry and other objects of personal adornment dating from 4,000 BC. Visitors are allowed to roam freely throughout most of the museum’s public display areas but only guided tours are allowed in these priceless treasure galleries.

The pragmatic Catherine knew Russia’s strength relied as heavily on its industrial might as it did on its cultural evolution. To celebrate Russian industry, the Mining Museum was opened in 1773. This museum is part of the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute / Technical University.

The 2,668 square meter (9,573 square feet) Mining Museum is home to more than 230,000 natural and artificial specimens of rock, ore, and fossils. More than 350 named meteorites are housed here.

Scale models of equipment used for mining during the 19th and 20th century are on display in the St. Petersburg Mining Museum, as is a world-class collection of edged weaponry created at the Zlatoust Arms Factory.

Some unique items and collections available only at the Mining Museum include a mosaic amber vase that stands 1 meter (39+ inches) tall, a palm tree hammered out of a single piece of railway rail, a coffee table fashioned out of petrified wood and embellished with bronze touches, and a Carrara marble statue of Venus.

Only here will you find a daisy-filled vase with all components made from diamonds, gold, jade, rock crystal, and silver. And a parrot of enamel, opal, ruby, and silver. And a diamond-encrusted snuffbox made from agate and gold.

Admission to the Mining Museum is free for all ages but tours must be scheduled in advance. No one is allowed in the museum without a reservation.

Children and students of all nationalities pay no admission to the Hermitage and all adults can enter free of charge on the first Thursday of every month. The rest of the time, adults who are foreign tourists can expect to pay considerably more than adult Russian citizens pay but the museum is well worth the cost of admission at any price. The Hermitage is closed every Monday.