The Hermitage: Architecture and Collections

Devoted to one of the greatest museums in the world, the Hermitage, boasts a collection of over 3 million exhibits. The collection covers almost all periods of world artistic culture. Included are Dutch, Spanish and French paintings, a collection of art from the Orient and Asia, collections of archaeological antiquities, pieces by 20th century artists, and works of applied and decorative arts, all of which have been carefully and lovingly collected in the course of nearly 250 years that the museum has existed. The articles are written in beautifully expressive language, the photographs display in full splendour the palace interiors, and art reproductions introduce the reader to important and dramatic events in Russian history which the walls of the Hermitage still remember well.