The Hermitage Museum is housed in an enormous complex of royal palaces. Tsarina Elizabeth I completed construction of the Winter Palace after her father, Peter I, died. When Catherine II came to power, she bought thousands of artworks from throughout Europe, and was forced to build additional structures to display this work. Today, the museum contains over 3 million pieces -- more than any other museum in the world.

Many rooms had exhibits which could not be photographed; I plan on buying postcards of the museum's highlights. If you'd like to see more, I highly recommend the museum's website.

Click on a photo for a larger version.

Preparations abound in Palace Square for the White Nights festival and concert. The large building on the left is the Winter Palace, the one on the right is the old Hermitage, built specifically to house Catherine's growing art collection. In the center of the square stands the Alexander column.

An interior courtyard of the Winter Palace taken from an open second-story window.

The gallery label describes this as a "carnival sledge."

The carnival sledge from a different angle.

These ivory portraits of the Romanov dynasty were fantastic! The amount of detail is incredible for their small size and shallow relief.

The state rooms at the winter palace were designed to show the power and wealth of the Russian Empire to foreign guests. Today the Gold Room houses cameos.

A detail from the floor of the Gold Room.

Another detail from the floor of the Gold Room. I'm amazed at the delicate shapes created in these inlaid floors.

The first Falconet sculpture I discovered, Winter.

I thought the broken dish was a thoughtful detail.

The face of winter.

Another sculpture by Falconet, Cupid sporting a devilish little grin.

The Imperial Throne Room. The scale was overwhelming.

A royal carriage.

This was simply called The Big Carriage, an apt description considering the large rear wheels are 5 feet in diameter.

Natasha's cat was the first I've seen since arriving in St. Petersburg.