Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (must see)

The Winter Palace is a former imperial residence and the principal historic building of the State Hermitage Museum. The present palace was designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in 1754–1762 for Empress Elizabeth, although she died shortly before its completion.

It subsequently became the main ceremonial residence of the Russian emperors and remained closely associated with the Romanov dynasty and the political life of the empire until 1917. The palace is a major example of Elizabethan Baroque architecture, with richly articulated façades, rows of columns, sculptural decoration, and an elaborate roofline. Much of the interior, however, was reconstructed after the devastating fire of 1837, principally under architects Vasily Stasov and Alexander Briullov. Among its best-known ceremonial spaces are the Jordan Staircase, Armorial Hall, St. George Hall, and Malachite Room. The Hermitage collection traces its foundation to 1764, when Catherine II acquired a major collection of European paintings from Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. Today, the museum’s holdings exceed three million works and cultural artifacts, including paintings, sculpture, decorative art, archaeological material, and numismatic collections. The Winter Palace also played an important role in the revolutionary events of 1917. By the autumn, members of the Provisional Government were working from the palace, and during the night of October 25–26, 1917 according to the Old Style calendar, Bolshevik forces entered the building and arrested the remaining ministers in the Small Dining Room.

Today, visitors can explore the former imperial state rooms together with extensive museum galleries displaying works by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and Rubens, placing the palace’s architectural and political history alongside one of the world’s largest museum collections.