Palace Square and Hermitage

Palace Square and the Hermitage

A very beautiful webcam overlooking one of the most important, interesting and historically significant sights of St. Petersburg – Palace Square and the Hermitage Museum.

Palace Square, shown online, is the main square of the northern capital of Russia. Its architectural ensemble was created in the second half of the 18th – first half of the 19th century. The area that you see in the live broadcast got its name from the Winter Palace, whose southern facade you can also see in the web camera.

The Palace Square in the online camera is the venue for concerts and public events.

The ensemble of Palace Square, shown online, includes: the Winter Palace, shown in the live cam, the General Staff Building, the Guards Corps Headquarters and the Alexander Column, which you see in the webcam.

Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage, the Winter Palace of which you can see in the online camera, is the pearl of St. Petersburg. This is the largest cultural and historical museum in Russia, located in 6 historical buildings. Today, the Hermitage houses a collection of almost 3 million exhibits: paintings, graphics, sculptures, objects of applied art, numismatics and archaeological sites.

The main ensemble of the Hermitage

The enfilades of the Winter Palace shown in this web camera are the result of the creation of the greatest architect Rastrelli. There are permanent exhibitions of paintings, graphics, sculptures from different countries and eras. One of the galleries is dedicated to the Romanov dynasty with a collection of portraits of members of the then reigning family. In the Tent Hall of the Winter Palace, which you see in the online camera, is presented Dutch painting of the 17th century. There is a special room set aside for the works of Rembrandt. The Spanish art school is representing by the paintings of Zurbaran, Velazquez, Murillo, El Greco. Works by painters from Italy, Germany, Flanders and England are exhibited here too. Also, there are stunning collections of ancient Roman and ancient Greek statues, bas-reliefs, sarcophagi and mosaics.

The Hermitage, from which territory the live stream is conducted from, has several branches. Peter the Great’s Winter Palace, Menshikov Palace, General Staff Building, Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Center.

Peter the Great’s Winter Palace

In the 18th century, this residence of Peter the Great was rebuilt into the Hermitage theatre. In the course of restoration work, 200 years later, the chambers of the emperor and empress were found: the dining room, study and turning workshop were recreated. Also in the collection there are personal and household items. Visitors are greeted by the work of portrait painting – a sculptural portrait of Peter I.

Menshikov Palace

The palace of the first governor Alexander Menshikov, one of the branches of the Hermitage, part of which you can see online, became one of the first houses of the new capital, built of stone. Now it houses the exposition “Culture of Russia at the beginning of the 18th century”.

Main Headquarters

In the eastern part of the General Staff building, there is a collection of French painting of the 19th and 20th centuries, one of the largest collections of Impressionism (approximately 3000 works). Here guests can get acquainted with the paintings of Claude Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Sisley, as well as 8 works by Van Gogh.

Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory

Porcelain items for the emperor’s family were made at the first Russian porcelain factory in two copies: the first was intended for the tsar and his relatives, the second was transferred to the factory museum. Currently, 30,000 items are stored here.

Restoration and storage center “Staraya Derevnya”

Artistic treasures, rare books, carriages, collections of furniture from the Hermitage funds are available to guests of the “village”.

Watch other interesting the Baltic Live Cam live stream cameras from Saint Petersburg – the picturesque Vasilievsky Island, the Legendary Cruiser Aurora, “Russian Versailles”, the Russian emperors’ country residence of Peterhof.