6th October: Hermitage

For those of you know are not aware, I need to stress the importance of the Hermitage - so here's a little information before I write - briefly- about the experience from my point of view.

The Hermitage is not only an unmissable feat of St Petersburg or Russia itself, it is actually one of the most famous museums in the WORLD and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go here - it's gold-cladden (as is most of the architecture in the city) and consists of art that spans over centuries. The collection itself includes about 2,500 paintings and tens of thousands of carved gems and drawings, all collected by the former monarch Catherine the Great, who lived in the Winter Palace which is in the Hermitage's grounds.
Even before entering the galleries, you can tell from the the building's exterior hat it is beautiful - as I said, it is abundant in golden decoration and rooms which beautifully decorated with sweeping staircases, ornamental stone and columns - the way the room is furnished is immaculate and quite clearly rich, in both material and content. The design, particularly on the ceilings, is intricate and stunning - of course, because it belonged once to one of the great Tsars of Russia, the rich architecture will come as no surprise - but actually being there, inside this vast building, is something that words can never do it justice - it absolutely must be seen.
And even now, I have not mentioned the collection of art, which brings together many nations and time periods all under one roof - the time periods whizz all the way back to the 7th-3rd centuries BC, all the way up to the twentieth century. This can also give you an idea of the number of countries that might be under this roof too - listing all the countries that are under this one colossal roof, but there are galleries devoted to Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, German, French, English - and of course Russian art - all unveiled to the eyes in this gallery. This is before you even consider that in the oriental collection, the collection covers most of Asia, where you can marvel at art from India, Iran, China, Japan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - just to start

So, we all gathered outside the garden-y area just before the entrance into the gallery (not so hot on names) before entering the palace and heading up the main staircase, built by Rastrelli, who built the Winter Palace among many other structures found around St Petersburg. I was very fond of this, due to the chessboard floor and the first glance at intricately designed walls. And then when you throw in the fact that Royals used to scale this staircase, it's just a bit WHOA to take it all in
Following on from here, we enter many columned-rooms that are covered in golden intricate design as well (my description of these is very repetitive, simply because I cannot find another word to describe it - fault on my part)
The pieces of art that you see here are not only paintings and drawings - there are many sculptures, mosaics that cover ceilings and floors, carved pictures as well - the variety in the different types of art, the artists' nationalities and the span of the eras across which the pieces of art were created, is just beyond belief - I am certain that I will have missed a lot of it. There are even loads of massive pot-teacup type things here - I don't even know how to describe it apart from how it appears to me - it's a vessel that's probably about four(ish?)-foot tall and has two handles on the sides of the vessel - it's kinda like a Goblet of Fire, from the Harry Potter films.

The amount of religious and mythological decoration is also in abundance, not only in the Hermitage, but in a lot of Russia. Of course, the Russians are famed for their religious icons (pictures depicting stories you can read about in the Bible) and a seemingly great interest in religion. You can see the great respect to religion, when you consider the appearance of the Church on Spilled Blood, Armenian Church, St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow - like the world itself, you can tell that someone has taken a lot of care and trouble to make these places as beautiful as possible, it can't have just sprung out of nowhere, or with minimum effort.
The halls leading to the Italian galleries are awfully pretty as well - this particular one is a replica of a 16th century corridor built by Raphael Loggias, in the Vatican, requested by Catherine the Great. She was a great fan of Loggias' work and therefore, commissioned copies of his work to make its mark in Russia, in 1787. As you can see on the ceiling between the beams, Biblical scenes were depicted chronologically.

And then along came ZEUS, in what feels like the basement, there are many mummies and sculptures relating to Greek and Roman mythology - an enormous room of busts, murals, various sculptures of figures of mythology.As I have a strange obsession with Greek and Roman mythology, this was quite a high point, and a lovely note to finish on.