Great Hermitage

The Great Hermitage, also known as the Old Hermitage, is a principal building within the State Hermitage Museum complex in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Constructed between 1771 and 1787 by architect Georg Friedrich Veldten, it stands as one of the earliest purpose-built museum structures in the world. Located on the Palace Embankment along the Neva River, it forms a continuous architectural ensemble with the Winter Palace and the Small Hermitage. The building was commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great to house and display the expanding imperial art collections, and it remains a core component of one of the largest and most visited museums globally.

The origins of the Great Hermitage trace to a 1770 decree that authorized construction of a new building aligned with the existing Hermitage complex. Work began in February 1771 under Veldten's direction and proceeded in stages, requiring demolition of existing structures including houses belonging to oberhofmeister Matvei Olsufiev and Lieutenant General Rodion Kochelev. The building was completed in 1787. In 1783, planning began for the Raphael Loggia, an attached gallery designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and finished in 1792. Subsequent modifications were carried out by architects Ludwig Charlemagne and Auguste Ricard de Montferrand. In the mid-19th century, Emperor Nicholas I dedicated the ceremonial enfilade of buildings to museum collections, with Andrei Stackenschneider designing new interiors in 1851. Following the premature death of Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich in 1865, the building's auxiliary wings were repurposed as guest quarters for foreign visitors to the imperial court.

The Great Hermitage was designed specifically to present the palace art collections and library. Its first floor contains former residential and state rooms overlooking the Neva River, now devoted to Italian painting from the 13th through the 18th centuries. These galleries display works by Renaissance masters including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, and Titian. The ground floor historically served administrative functions for the Hermitage directorate and occasionally hosted meetings of the Imperial Council. The attached Raphael Loggia houses a cycle of fresco copies after Raphael's Vatican prototypes, commissioned by Catherine the Great beginning in 1778.

The Italian Renaissance galleries on the first floor represent the Great Hermitage's most celebrated holdings, featuring paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, and Titian. The Raphael Loggia constitutes a singular architectural and artistic ensemble: its fresco copies reproduce the Vatican's Loggia di Raffaello with deliberate variations, executed on canvas by a team of painters under H. Ounterberg and later restored by Y. Metterleiter after transport from Italy. During the Siege of Leningrad in 1941, these canvases were protected by specially designed shields that hermetically sealed the windows, preventing damage throughout the war. The loggia's architectural conception by Quarenghi features a rhythmic sequence of semicircular arches with glazed exterior openings and mirrored windows on the interior wall, creating a distinct interpretation of the Roman original.

The Great Hermitage presents a strict, concise facade designed to harmonize with the Winter Palace and Small Hermitage while asserting its own monumental presence. The building contains two longitudinal suites of chambers, one facing the Palace Embankment and the other the interior courtyard. Quarenghi reconfigured the suite layout between 1805 and 1807, and Stackenschneider renovated the interiors in 1851 with extensive gilding, colored stone, precious woods, painting, and moldings. Notable are doors executed in the Boulle style. The Raphael Loggia extends perpendicular to the main building along the Winter Canal. Quarenghi had measured the Vatican gallery before departing Italy, though discrepancies between his measurements and the Italian canvases during construction led to the removal of stone master J. Lukini from supervision.

The Great Hermitage stands within the State Hermitage Museum complex at 34 Palace Embankment in the Dvortsovy Municipal Okrug of Saint Petersburg's Central District. As part of the main museum complex, it is accessible to the public through the Hermitage's general admission system. The State Hermitage Museum, a federal state property, receives approximately 2.8 million visitors annually and offers free entry on the third Thursday of each month, with free daily admission for students and children. The museum is closed Mondays. The complex is served by Admiralteyskaya metro station.