monochrome

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The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

I can't remember when I first heard of the Hermitage, but I've been wanting to visit for a number of years. A year or two ago, I rented Russian Ark, and while I found myself lost during parts of the film due to my lack of knowledge of Russian history, I longed to be lost within the corridors of the museum in which they shot.

Visiting the museum, I was unprepared for how sumptuous the Winter Palace is. For at least an hour, I wandered the hallways and rooms looking not at the art, but at the building itself. I let my eyes lead me from chamber to chamber, pausing now and again to admire a small detail or to wonder at the grand scale of the rooms themselves. Now and again, I'd recognize a stairway or a ballroom from the film, but on the whole I was just captivated by the building (the one place I could not go, but which I longed to see, was the theater).

I took this photo down one of the long corridors, though without my museum map by my side I can't say exactly which. I spent the better part of the day in the museum, and saw just this one buildnig. I didn't have time enought to tour the other branches.

More photos of Moscow and my trip along the Trans-Siberian / Mongolian can be found at the links below:

Part one: The Trans-Siberian: Beautiful Monotony
Part two: The Trans-Mongolian: Contrasts