Darly guessed..it is my basement....

I feel like Rumpelstiltskin ... stunned that she would figure it out!! Hahahahah...... but, seriously.....

I have a certain fascination with all things Russian it seems... why that is, I have absolutely no idea. Years ago I was fortunate to make some new friends; a couple who, at that time, lived in St. Petersburg. They sent me the pics and information. Guess where they moved to from the city of art? ... Chicago. Hmmm... but, they will soon be moving from there to somewhere with wind and waves... as Vlad has now become a licensed kite pilot.

The pictures are some views from inside the Winter Palace portion of this..... The Hermitage.
Inconceivable. Unbelievable. Any and all words that convey that.

The Hermitage

.......in St. Petersburg, Russia, is one of the largest museums in the world. Its displays are housed in 400 rooms spread across an architectural complex of five buildings which was created over the course of some 100 years, from the second half of the 18^th century to the middles of the 19^th.

The oldest of these buildings is the Winter Palace erected between 1754 and 1762. For a century and a half this majestic edifice in the exuberant Baroque style was an official residence of the Russian sovereigns. The building has retained its original exterior appearance, but the decoration of its rooms and halls was substantially altered in the course of the restoration work carried out after a devastating fire in 1837.

Adjoining the winter Palace is the building of the Small Hermitage, constructed between 1764 and 1767. It consists of a pavilion and two long well-lit galleries running from it on either side of the Hanging Garden which was laid out at the level of the second storey. The hanging Garden communicates directly with the Pavilion Hall, famous for the interior created 1850-58. In the 18^th century the rooms around the Hanging Garden were the first to house the collection of paintings and sculptures of Catherine the Great. As the museum grew, the name of the pavilion came to refer to the whole of it.

Alongside the Small Hermitage stands a building which in reality consists of a whole complex of constructions added at different times. All of these buildings are connected by covered walk-ways so that to the visitor they seem part of one huge palace-museum.

At present the Hermitage collection comprises more than 2,500,000 works of art, including some 15,000 paintings, over 12,000 sculptures, more than 600,000 drawings and engravings and about 1,000,000 coins and medals. Among the great artists whose works can be found here are Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Watteau, Michelangelo, Renoir, Picasso and Matisse.