In April, I visited Saint Petersburg with a friend. One of the reasons we decided to visit the city was definitely not because one of the biggest museums in the world is housed there. Neither of us are particularly fond of museums. However, the Hermitage did manage to excite us; mainly because we could practice our photography skills. 

The Hermitage

The Hermitage museum actually the whole Palace Square. It consists of multiple buildings. The most famous and impressive one is the Winter Palace, to which Catharina the Great added the small Hermitage.

She is also the one who decided to display her whole art collection in the building in the 18th century. In the 19th century, Nicholas I opened the doors to the public.

Most of the art was purchased from western Europe. If you’d like to see Russian art you should visit another museum; like the aptly named Russian Museum. In the Hermitage, you’ll only find the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Basically, the hours that you’ll spend in the museum, you’ll feel like you’re in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands or France.

My friend and I decided to book a guided tour. We know ourselves, so we knew we would otherwise run around the museums like headless chickens, being the cultural barbarians that we are. We booked through Viator. This tour also includes skip the line entry, which isn’t really necessary in the spring as there aren’t that many tourists yet. You could easily do the tour by yourself, if you’d wish.

The tour guide provided us with headphones so that we could roam around while she was speaking to us. This brought the photographer forth in me.

Photo Diary

What I love most about the Hermitage was the ability to take photographs freely. My friend and I made it our challenge to take the best possible photographs, while trying to get as few people on them as possible. Was I as novice photographer successful? Judge for yourselves!