Empress Catherine II of Russia (Catherine the Great) created the Hermitage Museum in 1764 when she began to collect great works of Western art. The main building of the museum, the Winter Palace, was built between 1752 and 1764, and it was the official royal residence until 1917. The Small and Great Hermitage buildings were constructed between 1764 and 1787 to house the empress' growing art collections.
Guided tours of the museum are available, and art history lectures are held in the Lectorium. The Hermitage also supports an orchestra and a theater.
The total area of the Hermitage is 418,230 square feet, of which 156,714 square feet are devoted to exhibitions.
The Hermitage Museum collection is comprised of about 3 million items, including approximately 17,000 paintings, 12,500 sculptures and 734,000 archaeological monuments.
The most famous painters of the Renaissance are well represented at the museum. For example, the collection includes two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci (Madonna with a Flower and Madonna Litta), two paintings by Raphael (Madonna Conestabile and The Holy Family) and several paintings by Titian and Caravaggio. The Hermitage also has an extraordinary collection of Greek vases from the archaic and classical periods.