The Main Staircase
The State Hermitage Museum is among the world's largest museums. Housed in six buildings along the Neva embankment (including the Winter Palace), it boasts a vast collection of Egyptian, Greek, Ancient Roman, Oriental, Western European Art, and Applied Arts. It includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck, French Impressionists (Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Degas, Pissarro), Van Gogh, Matisse, Gaugin and sculptures by Rodin. Large collections of numismatics, court dresses, furniture, gorgeous interiors and stately chandeliers make the Hermitage a star site of Saint Petersburg.

February 21, 2004