Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The 250th Hermitage Anniversary

Hermitage or the State Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the world is almost ready to celebrate its 250th anniversary. The museum will turn 250 years on the 7th of December of 2014. The museum is well-known around the world for a large collection of art and culture pieces. Hermitage is located in Saint-Petersburg.  It was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great or Catherine II as her private collection. Historians don't know the actual birthday of the museum, but everybody celebrate its birthday on the 7th because of the day of Saint Catherine - the protectress (patroness) of the museum. It was opened to the public in 1852. Right now the museum has at its disposition nearly 3 million items. The place holds the Guinness World Record for its painting collection. If you are interested in Russian Art - this is the best place to learn about it.

So, what will the museum get as a birthday gift?

Russian government discussed some plans about changing the face of the museum by donating 15.7 billions rubles (about 573,809,880 US dollars.) By 2014 they want to equip the Palace Square, the building of the General Staff, the Defense Ministry transferred to the museum, as well as the building of the Small Hermitage museum. They will also have to renovate the interiors of the Winter Palace and build a brand new Repository which will be available to public. 

The Legend of the Russian Empire's Cast-Iron Medal for Heavy Drinkers

Here's an interesting fact about drunkards in the Russian Empire during the Peter the Great times. They were commonly referred to as &qu...