{"id":135,"date":"2023-12-04T01:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T01:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/russiable.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2023-12-04T21:33:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T21:33:09","slug":"buy-tickets-hermitage-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/russiable.com\/buy-tickets-hermitage-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hermitage of St. Petersburg: What to see and how to buy tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Hermitage of St. Petersburg is one of the largest museums in the world. In order to plan your visit, it is convenient to take into account some practical elements, as well as organize a good itinerary, depending on the time you have available.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Hermitage<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

1. Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you travel to St. Petersburg, even if it is only for one day, an essential visit is the Hermitage Museum<\/a>, one of the largest art galleries and antiques museums in the world, which rivals museums such as the Louvre in Paris or El Prado in Madrid. Though more than a museum, it is also a palace-museum, as it also contains rooms and spectacular areas from the time of the czars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hermitage consists of a complex of several buildings on the banks of the Neva River<\/strong>, the most important of which is the Winter Palace, which was the official residence of the ancient Tsars. The museum’s collection was formed through the private collection that the czars were acquiring over several centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The museum exhibits more than 3 million works of art: paintings, sculptures, archaeological pieces, numismatics objects, etc. They say that going through all the rooms means walking around 24 kilometers, which means that you have to live in the city to know the museum in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, in a visit of 1 day or even a few hours, you can take an overall impression of the museum and see some of its main rooms and its most famous works of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article I will focus on the main practical elements to consider when organizing the visit and how to plan an itinerary through the museum, based on the time you have available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. When to visit the Hermitage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Any season of the year is good<\/strong> to visit the Hermitage. The largest influx of people to the museum occurs in summer, when Russian tourists are joined by foreigners, many of them from cruise ships docking in the port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to have the maximum time for the visit I recommend you do it on a Tuesday, Friday<\/strong> or Saturday<\/strong>, since these days the museum has a more extense schedule<\/strong> (from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the days (Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) the schedule is shorter (from 11:00am to 6:00pm). The museum is closed on Mondays (and also on January 1 and May 9, which are holidays in Russia), although from the summer of 2022 the museum opens on Mondays<\/a> to see some exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The influx of people is always greater during the weekends<\/strong> and during school holidays<\/strong>, so it is best to avoid these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admission to the museum is free<\/strong> on the third Thursday of each month but only for some groups (under 18s, pensioners, students, etc.), but it must be taken into account that these are busy days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people come to the museum in the morning. From 4:00 pm, the influx of people goes down very considerably<\/strong>. So if you want to do a few hours quick visit, Wednesday or Friday after lunch (3 or 4pm) is a good time, since you probably will not find any lines and you will still have about 4-5 hours to visit the museum and see the most important exhibits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hermitage<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3. The museum buildings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The main collection of the museum is in the so-called Main Complex<\/strong>, consisting of five interconnected buildings<\/strong>: the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the New Hermitage, the Great (Old) Hermitage and the Hermitage Theater. The people of St. Petersburg call this great complex as the Winter Palace, since it is the main building and the one appears in all photos and postcards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyways, when you visit the main complex, you go from one building to another without practically realizing it, since they are interconnected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entrance to this large complex is located in the Palace Square<\/strong> number 2 (the main square of St. Petersburg) and is accessed through a large iron gate<\/strong> that gives access to a large courtyard, inside which are the ticket offices and also the ticket vending machines.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Palace<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"hermitage-eng-5<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In addition to the Main Complex<\/strong>, whose visit will take you all day, the museum also has other exhibition buildings that are separated from the main complex. It\u2019s worth a visit if you have the time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n