The vast State Museum of Hermitage located at the heart of Saint Petersburg, near the Neva river. This museum with more than 3 million pieces of historical and art items which only a small part of them are permanently displayed at the time is the second-largest art museum in the world. The complex contains six main structures, a few subordinates, and several galleries.
Considering the number of pieces of art in this museum, to observe all of them in one trip is nearly impossible, but, there are some collections that you can't miss during your visit to the Hermitage. The Treasure Gallery is one of them which include two major halls, the Gold Room, and the Diamond Chamber. The security in this gallery is at its maximum; therefore, only a small group of people can visit the gallery at once upon the previous request.
To visit this gallery, you should step into the Small Hermitage which is one of the main structures in the Hermitage complex. In this building, beside the Treasure Gallery, there are exhibitions of paintings and artifacts from Western Europe at the display. The famous peacock clock is also kept in this building.
The Gold room is part of the Treasure Gallery and one of the most significant collections of the Hermitage. In this collection, there are more than 1500 gold pieces of art, diamond, and other gemstones maintained which their origins back to different times and places. There are some pieces of jewelry from the archeological finds from Scythian, ancient Greek, India, Iran, and China. The oldest piece in this collection probably dates back to around 3000 years before Christ. There are also some golden palace decorations from the 12th to the 16th century of Russia, beside a few religious items from the imperial families. In overall, you can find golds, jewelry, rings, bracelets, religious items, gifts which are all belonged to imperial families. The most impressive piece in this gallery would be the Horse Attire of Nicolas I which he received from the Sultan Mahmoud as a gift, and it contains more than 16 thousand pieces of diamond in its designing.
The Diamond Chamber was first established in the Winter Palace to display the Catherine the Great's diamond collection in 1764, later in 1792, the gallery relocated to the Great Hermitage. Finally, in 1851, the collection relocated for the last time to the Small Hermitage, and since then alongside the Gold Room, together formed the famous Treasure Gallery. In the Diamond Chamber's collection, one can find diplomatic gifts, ancient artifacts, and purchases from the Russian monarchs from famous jewelry makers such as Carl Faberge. The variation range of items in this collection goes from clothes, jewelry boxes, watches, rings, bracelets, and mirrors to religious items, imperial families' possessions, and jewelry that made by famous Western European or Russian jewelry-makers. A fun fact about this collection is that most of the items in there are from Romanov family who loved to purchase pieces of jewelry, especially the ones that made out of the diamond.
People who visit Russia, especially St. Petersburg often got confused about which attractions are more important for them to visit, we at the Star Travel Group gathered some crucial information about St. Petersburg attractions in our blog which is free for everyone to search and read so they can decide their travel plans easily.
