The Winter Palace and The Hermitage

It was a long day of walking around the museum which has over three million items in its collection and while `i spent six hours walking around the galleries, I only saw a fraction of the exhibits in the collection. The outside of the main entrance to the building.

 A side view not often seen.

 The main staircase.

 Another view of the main staircase looking down.

 Our guide taking through one f the doors to an exhibition.

 A chandelier.

 The throne room.

 Some of the clothes thart.t were worn in cou

 A corridor of celebration following victory with most of the surviving dignitaries remembered...except for those that died who are remembered with just an empty frame and their name.

 The throne of the tzars.

 The chandeliers in a ball room.

 A full frontal of the main chandelier in the ball room.

 A giant malachite vase...

 ...and another view with people in it to show how big it is.

 Some of the extravagant decorations.

 A boule door made from wood, metal and tortoise shell.

 An orb=nate fire place.

 Some Venetian glass ware...

 ...and more examples.

 The entrance to the theatre although the only way to see the there itself is t buy a ticket to an evening performance which I have done and is recorded in an earlier blog and in my book "Crossing Russia on the Trans Siberian' published in autumn 2017.

 A loggia as requested by Katherine the Great with various scenes from the bible recorded.
                                      
 Some detail of the loggia...

 ...one of the doors...

 ...and a view of one of the ceiling paintings.

 A general view of one of the exhibition halls.

 Another giant vase in lapis lazuli.

 A candle stick holder on a giant scale.

Yet another vase and a table of the same precious stone.

 A malachite urn and table.

 A view of the decor.

 A view of the room which houses paintings.

 In the dog house...where the original expression comes from.

 Another view of one of the interiors.

 Another urn.

 Some beautiful ceramics.

 In the silver and gold display room.

 Some of the many times on display.

 The church built for Katherine the Great who was very devout.

 A close up of the altar.

 Some gold columns.

 A gold icon.

 The pulpit.

 Another giant but flat urn.

 The brick roof of the Egyptian Room.

 Another couple of ceiling decor details..

 A bust of Tiberius in two different marbles.

 The Egyptian room with a  heavy resemblance on the building at Thebes in Egypt.

 A reproduction of an eighteenth century library within the Hermitage.

 A reproduction i miniature of the regalia.

 A writing set produced by Carl Faberge.

 A clock by Carl Faberge.

 An art nouveau chandelier in the General Staff Quarters opposite the Hermitage, now an extension of the Hermitage Museum.

 Arte nouveau exhibits, and there are many great itms here which is one of my favourite periods of art.

But after several hours of tracking around museum halls it was time to go as it was closing tie and despite visiting the museum twice before...there are still several halls that I have to yet seen so I will have to come back yet again!