Winter Palace

Three Million Objects and a Building That Outlasted the Tsars

In the winter of 1917, sailors from the Baltic Fleet stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd and arrested the Provisional Government. The storming has been mythologised far beyond what actually happened (it was more of a late-night walk-in than a military assault), but the symbolic weight stuck: this building, the official residence of the Romanov dynasty for nearly two centuries, became the centre of power during one of the most consequential upheavals in modern history.

On 30 October 1917, less than three weeks later, the palace was declared part of the Hermitage public museums. Today it is among the largest museum complexes in the world, holding over three million objects in five interconnected buildings. You could spend a week and not see everything. Most visitors get half a day and come away overwhelmed.

Before anything else: as of 2026, visiting St. Petersburg as a Western tourist involves real practical complications. The US State Department maintains a Level 4 advisory against travel to Russia. US, UK, Canadian, and Australian passports face significant visa processing difficulties, with most consular missions in those countries not processing Russian tourist visas normally. Western credit and debit cards do not work in Russia due to sanctions. No direct flights operate between Russia and the US, UK, Canada, or most EU countries; you transit through Istanbul, Dubai, or similar hubs. If you hold a passport from one of 64 e-visa eligible countries (many EU states, Japan, India, China), access is more straightforward. Verify the current status of travel advisories and visa requirements for your specific nationality before making plans.

That said, this is still one of the great buildings in the world, and the collection inside it is genuinely extraordinary. Here is what you need to know for when travel is possible.

The Building

The Winter Palace was the official residence of the Russian emperors from 1732 to 1917. The present structure was built under Empress Elizabeth, who hired Bartolomeo Rastrelli to design the Baroque facade. The building was substantially altered and refurbished by subsequent rulers; Catherine the Great added the Small Hermitage and began the serious art collection; Nicholas I added the New Hermitage, which opened as a public museum in 1852.

The palace contains 1,886 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms, and 117 staircases. It was severely damaged by fire in 1837 and rebuilt over 15 months under Nicholas I, who reportedly told his engineers the reconstruction had to be finished in one year. They ran the work continuously, day and night, through a St. Petersburg winter. The rebuilt interiors incorporated some original design elements but are substantially a 19th-century reconstruction of an 18th-century palace.

The exterior color is officially called “Hermitage Green,” a turquoise-aquamarine somewhere between seafoam and mint. In winter snow, under grey skies, the color becomes more vivid rather than less. The effect on Palace Square, with the Alexander Column (a single monolithic granite pillar, 47 metres high, with an angel on top, balanced by its own weight with no foundation bolts) at the centre, is genuinely impressive.

The Collection

Catherine the Great is the primary architect of the Hermitage collection. Between 1764 and 1796 she acquired more than 4,000 paintings and around 38,000 books, mostly through bulk purchases of major European collections. She bought the entire collection of a Berlin merchant named Gotzkowski (which included Rembrandts and Rubens), the collection of Sir Robert Walpole from Houghton Hall, and the collection of the French Comte de Baudouin, among others.

By 1917, the collection numbered over 700,000 items. It is now around 3 million, though only a fraction is on display at any time.

The highlights most visitors prioritise:

Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna Litta and Madonna Benois: Two of the fifteen universally accepted Leonardo paintings in existence, both in the Hermitage. The Madonna Litta in particular is in almost perfect condition, which is unusual; Leonardo’s experimental technique with other pigments often led to deterioration in his works, but this one survived. The room housing them is small and, outside of peak summer, not impossibly crowded.

Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son: Painted in the final years of Rembrandt’s life, around 1668, when he was bankrupt and his son had just died. The painting is widely considered one of the finest works in the Hermitage and one of Rembrandt’s greatest. The prodigal kneeling before his father, the worn soles of his feet visible, the restraint of the father’s hands on his son’s shoulders: it takes time to look at properly.

The Peacock Clock: An automaton clock in the Small Hermitage, made in London in the 1770s, acquired by Catherine the Great. A gilded bronze tree holds a peacock, a cockerel, a squirrel, and a mushroom that forms the clock face. On the hour (and on Saturday afternoons when it is demonstrated), the peacock spreads and rotates its tail, the cockerel crows, and the owl swings its head. It has been running continuously for nearly 250 years.

The Malachite Drawing Room: An entire room surfaced in polished malachite, the green mineral from the Ural Mountains. The columns, pilasters, fireplace, and decorative objects are all malachite. It was the formal drawing room of the imperial family and is visually unlike any room in any other palace I have been in.

The Jordan Staircase: The grand ceremonial staircase, with white marble, gilded decoration, and a ceiling fresco of Olympus. The tsars used this staircase for the Epiphany ceremony, descending to the Neva River to bless the waters. You enter through here.

Visiting Practically

Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 18:00. Wednesday and Friday extended to 21:00 (and notably quieter after 17:00 on those evenings). Closed Mondays.

Standard admission is 500 rubles (roughly equivalent to around €5 to €8, depending on exchange conditions). The third Thursday of each month is free entry, and can be very crowded. Audio guides are available for 500 rubles.

Book tickets online in advance through the official Hermitage website if possible. Walk-up queues for ticket purchase at peak times in summer can run one to two hours. Even with a pre-booked ticket, security and entry lines add time.

Plan for at least four to six hours for a serious first visit focused on the main highlights. The five main buildings are connected inside; you do not need to go outside between them. The walking distances alone are significant.

Where to Eat

The immediate area around the Hermitage on Palace Square is not a food destination. The nearby streets have cafes serving tourists at tourist prices; the quality is variable.

Café Singer inside the Dom Knigi bookshop on Nevsky Prospekt, a 15-minute walk from the palace, is a practical stop for lunch or afternoon coffee with views over Nevsky. It is popular and can be crowded, but the food is reasonable.

The Nevsky Prospekt restaurant strip has everything from fast-food to upmarket dining. For Russian food specifically, look for places serving traditional pelmeni (dumplings), borscht, and solyanka (a sour, spiced meat soup that is worth trying). Budget around 600 to 1,200 rubles for a full meal at a mid-range Nevsky restaurant.

For something more considered, the area around Marinskaya Square and near St. Isaac’s Cathedral has several restaurants of decent quality. Local recommendations change frequently in a city with an active food scene; asking your hotel reception for a current suggestion is more reliable than any guide published more than six months ago.

Where to Stay

Hotel Astoria on Isaakievskaya Ploshchad is the hotel closest to the Winter Palace and Hermitage, has been there since 1912, and maintains its position as the most traditional choice for visitors to the area. Expensive by Russian standards, comparable to a mid-range European hotel price-wise.

Grand Hotel Europe on Nevsky Prospekt is the other historic choice. It opened in 1824, was restored in the 1990s, and sits at the intersection of Mikhailovskaya and Nevsky. The service and facilities are the most consistent of the central options.

For visitors on a tighter budget, the area around Nevsky Prospekt has numerous smaller hotels and guesthouses. The Nevsky Grand Hotel near the intersections at the western end of Nevsky is a practical and well-located three-star option.

One practical note: given the current situation with Western payment cards not functioning, verify your accommodation’s payment requirements before arriving. Many hotels require either cash in rubles, or pre-payment through an international booking platform before you enter the country.

Palace Square and the Surroundings

Palace Square is worth time on its own. The scale is unusual: 5.5 hectares of open space bordered by the Hermitage on one side and the curved General Staff Building (now a branch of the Hermitage) on the other, with the Alexander Column at the centre. The column was erected in 1834 to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon. It is 47 metres tall and stands unsecured, held upright purely by gravity and its own weight.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, about 20 minutes’ walk along the canal from Palace Square, is worth the detour. It was built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, and the interior mosaics cover every surface, over 7,000 square metres in total. Less visited than the Hermitage and more distinctive in its own way.

Peterhof, the palace and fountain complex on the Gulf of Finland about 30 kilometres west of the city, is the day trip most commonly paired with a Hermitage visit. The Grand Cascade fountain system, a channelled waterfall leading down to the sea, operates from late spring through autumn. Plan a full day if you go; Peterhof alone takes three to four hours.