STATE HERMITAGE. ST. PETERSBURG

The Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the world. It is considered to be founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great received a collection of 225 paintings acquired by the German merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, in compensation of his debts. Nowadays, in the Hermitage collections there are more than 3 million items representing the art and the culture of different countries of the world, from Antiquity to the present time.