At the present moment the exhibitions of the Hermitage occupy four buildings, the fifth — t h e Hermitage Theatre — being used now as a Lecture Theatre of the Museum. All the five buildings, though erected at different times and for different purposes, are linked together by roofed passages, thus forming a single unit.
Being adjacent to the Winter Palace the Hermitage buildings, though intended to house the museum collections, served for a long time as an extention of the palace, — court festivities being often held amidst the paintings, — and were decorated with splendour equal to that of the Palace. The most outstanding architects, painters, sculptors, specialists in almost all the branches of applied art took part in their construction, which makes the very buildings and rooms of the Museum a matter of interest too.
The Winter Palace is by the date of its construction the earliest of the buildings occupied now by the Museum. Erected in 1754—1762 to the design of the architect Bart holomew Rastrelli, it still remains one of the noteworthiest architectural monuments of the city.
Nothing remains now of the original walls and inner decorations of Rastrelli’s time, the Palace being completely destroyed by fire in 1837. It was restored in the 1840′s by the leading architects of that period V. Stasov and A. Bryullov, however, taste having changed, the style of the rooms was altered, and nowadays Rastrelli’s hand is recognized in the outer facades and but in some rooms of the Palace.
The Main Stairway is one of the few places in the Palace retaining the eighteenth-century style. The beautiful swing of the marble banisters, infinite variety of the gilded mouldings, mirrors introduced into the walls to make the room more spacious, are the most imposing features of the interior. Monolithic columns of grey granite were added to it in the middle of the 19th century. Being the largest and the most impressive of the 117 stairways of the Palace, this one was originally called the Embassadors’ Stairway” and was used during official receptions. Nowaays it is the Main Entrance Stairway to the Museum.
It was in the 18th century that some rooms of the Palace were set side for the art collections. However, the Palace being not intended for museum purposes, another building adjacent to the Palace and intended ) house the growing collections was erected as early as 1764 by the rchitect Vallin de la Mothe (1729—1800), professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. The building was called the Hermitge,— a hermit’s dwelling — and was used by Catherine II both as a mseum and a refuge from her court duties. Thus, the Hermitage originatd as a palace museum with the access to it strictly limited.
The interior of the Small Hermitage, as the building was later called, as altered in the middle of the 19th century, and the lofty Pavilion fall (Hermitage, 1st floor, room â„– 204) as we see it now, with its elaborate mouldlgs and monolithic marble columns supporting a light gallery decorated 1th lace-carved railing, — is the work of the architect A. Stackenchneider (1802—1865). Beautiful crystal-glass chandeliers of Russian ork were added in the 1870′s.
Unfit for the accommodation of paintings, the Pavilion Hall houses ow a collection of Russian and European mosaics.
A notable feature of the Small Hermitage building is a roof garden, nown as the “Hanging Garden”, laid out in the 18th century. It is used on vaults and seems to hang. The layer of earth about seven feet permits to plant in it small trees and bushes. On summer days the visitors of the Museum may have here some rest in listening to symphonion music nowadays specially broadcasted in the garden.
Numerous acquisitions made by the end of the 18th century resulted l addition of a new museum building overlooking the Neva which was construction from 1775 to 1784. Originally designed by Y. Felten 1730—1801), it was altered in the interiors by A. Stackenchneider i the middle of the 19th century, and State Rooms were installed here i place of the halls adapted for the accommodation of the collections. The museum exhibitions were brought back again to this building only after le October Revolution.
The most notable of the whole set of rooms is room 214 (Hermitage), remarible for its decorations, of which the monolithic grey marble columns id those clad with green-and-brown-striped jasper plaques deserve speal mention. They are of Russian work as well as the chandeliers and )me of the wall-paintings.
Soon after the completion of the Old Hermitage, as the Felten building was named in the 19th century, two new edifices were started most simultaneously. The one was the Hermitage Theatre intended i r private use of the court. It was designed by G. Quarenghi (1744) in 1784 and was connected with the Old Hermitage by anarch thrown ver the Winter Canal. The theatre retains the original style both in the facades and interior displaying a magnificent dress circle. Intended for 500 persons, it is nowadays used as a Lecture Theatre of the Museum.
The other building, which overlooked the Winter Canal and was executed also by Quarenghi in 1788, was an exact and unique copy of the famous gallery in the Vatican, known as the Raphael Loggias (Hermitage, 1st floor, room 227). Raphael’s frescoes were copied on canvases by many painters then in Rome, the whole work having taken eight years (1778— 1785). Connected with the Old Hermitage building, the Gallery was regared as a further extension to the Museum, which still remained closed to the general public.
It was not until the middle of the 19th century that the Hermitage has become a public museum. By that time the collections had already been transferred from the old buildings to a new one, called the New Hermitage, erected in 1839—1850 to the design of the Munich architect Leo Klenze (1784—1864), well known as the architect of the Pinakothek at Munich. He, however, stayed in Germany, the work being carried out on the spot by the eminent Russian architects V. Stasov (1769—1848) and N. Yefimov (1799—1851).
The building is approached by a splendid portico supported by ten grey granite monolithic figures executed by A. Terebenev (1812— 1859) which may rank among the most illustrious examples of Russian stone carving of the 19th century. The ground floor of the New Hermitage building, originally intended for the antiquities, was executed in the classical style so as to fit the objects exhibited. Many rooms of the ground floor are remarkable for the beautiful marble flooring, whereas all of them compete for supremacy in display of the exquisite palette of the stucco (artificial marble) covering the walls and serving as a most suitable background for the sculptures.
Among the noteworthy rooms of the 1st floor will be found those containing paintings of Italian seventeenth- and eighteenth-century School and Spanish seventeenth-century School (Hermitage, 237, 238, 239). They were intended to contain paintings, which bespoke the character of the architectural design. However the sumptuous decorations testify strongly to the fact that the Museum continued to be an institution pertaining to the Palace.
Indeed, though opened to the public in 1852, the Museum was still called Imperial Hermitage, its collections being considered property of the Tsar’s family, whereas the admittance was still restricted by several regulations abolished only by the end of the 19th century under strong pressure of Russian democratic circles.