The Hermitage, part 2

After our tour of the Winter Palace, we were able to do a quick run-through of some of the most famous artists in the collection. While we had read that the  Hermitage has the largest collection of paintings in the world, we had no idea that they had all this!  Within just a few minutes, we saw Monet, Degas, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, El Greco.....

Love Degas.....

There also was a Michaelangelo statue "Crouching Boy"...

It was quite fascinating to hear of how all this artwork and cultural items were collected.  Several of the Russian monarchs built collections of artwork; however, quite a bit of the collection was added as a part of the "nationalism process." (Our guide's words, not mine 😳)

As you might imagine, that "process" began around 1917.  I do have to say, Russia's emphasis on restoring and preserving the artwork and cultural items is very impressive. There are even several schools here that train restorers.

And we continued our "tradition" of seeing bridal parties everywhere we go, this time we saw two at the same time!

The Hermitage has also opened up a new complex called Storage. I had visions of "storage" [yikes]!  But this is a separate facility about a 30 minute bus ride from the main Hermitage site at Staraya Derevyna. The project began in 1990 and is still not complete. The site has over 35,000 square meters of storage. A few small private tours are allowed each day to just a few rooms. We were allowed in but had a separate employee tour guide plus lots of guards watching us everywhere. No photographs are allowed, but holy cow, this was an incredible experience. 

Check out this picture of the Hall of Carriages which we got to walk through 

 http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/hermitage-museum/storage-facility-staraya-derevnya/

We also were allowed to see a real Persian tent that was presented to Catherine the Great by the Turkish Sultan Selim III in 1793.  But since she didn't like that style, she never used it - thankfully, that means it is in excellent condition as it was not opened for over 200 years.  The museum has it encased in class in such a way that you can walk through it. This is the best picture I could find....