Small Hermitage
(Small or Little Hermitage, Ermitage, Малый Эрмитаж, in St. Petersburg, St.Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Saint-Petersbourg, Sankt-Petersburg, Sankt-Petersurg, Санкт-Петербург) . Russian words and phrases are in Cyrillic Windows encoding.
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Small Hermitage (or Little Hermitage, Maly Ermitage, Малый Эрмитаж) was the
first original building of the Hermitage Museum. Built back in 1764, it is the
next building to the right of the Winter Palace (as seen from the Palace Square,
otherwise it is the first structure to the east of the Winter Palace). At first,
it was simply called Hermitage, but later became known as Small Hermitage after
new and larger museum structures were built along Neva. Jean-Baptiste Vallin
de La Mothe designed the original building. Construction was complete by 1775.
The building underwent several renovations in the 19th century. Between 1840
and 1843 it was expanded upwards: architect Vassili (Vasili, Vasiliy) Stastov
built the fourth floor and in 1850s Andrei Stackenschneider constructed an impressive
marble hall where he combined elements of Arabic and Italianate Renaissance
decor. Since 18 century hanging winter garden connects the Maly Hermitage building
to the Winter Palace.
Address: Dvortsovaia Ploshchad,
34 (34 Palace Square).
Subway/Metro: Nevsky Prospekt, then walk north or take one of trolley-buses
or regular buses running along Nevsky. Part of the State Hermitage Museum.
Read
on, next (The Old Hermitage)
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