Click on any photo for a closer view.

The Hermitage Museum is a collection of 6 buildings, including the famous Winter Palace. In all there are some 350 exhibition rooms.

In 1764, Catherine the Great (left) decided to start an art collection and went about it with the same gusto she applied to everything else. The collection now includes over 3 million pieces, although that's a fraction of the original number. After the revolution, many items were stolen or sold.

During the 1000-day siege of Leningrad in World War II, when German guns bombarded the city relentlessly, museum curators who were nearly starving stayed on the job even though it meant getting reduced food rations. And, with fuel a very precious commodity, they used what little wood they could find to crate and hide many of the treasures of the Hermitage. The collection has been augmented in recent years, including a collection of French Impressionists "nationalized" from private collections in 1948.

If you visit the Hermitage without a guide, check their Web site first so you have a plan!

We couldn't see the entire collection, of course --- one of our guidebooks estimated that if you just glanced at each item, the visit would take nine years.

During our two visits, though, we saw a lot -- a dizzying array of Old Masters and French Impressionists, the bassinet where the last Tsarevitch slept, wonderful statuary, striking architectural detail, weapons, dazzling jewels.... and even tattooed skin of a mummified hunter from the 5th or 4th century B.C.

The Great Throne Room (also called the Hall of St. George). Here, Alexander I swore that he would never make peace until Napoleon was driven from Russia. Then his generals proceeded to hand Napoleon a massive defeat. Of nearly 500,000 French troops that attacked Russia, fewer than 100,000 returned from the Russian winter of 1812. It was also in this room that Nicholas II, at the outbreak of World War I vowed to defeat Germany. (Then came the revolution and Russia withdrew from the war in total disarray.)

At right, tickets to the Hermitage -- works of art in themselves

This monument in the square outside the Hermitage commemorates the victory over Napoleon. The pillar is a solid piece of granite which stands only by its own weight. Nothing was used to cement it in place. And it was on this site, too, that the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1902 took place. In it, over 100,000 demonstrators marched peacefully in to the Square to present their demands to the Tsar and, in a moment of panic, soldiers opened fire on the crowd. The Decembrists' uprising against Tsar Nicholas I also took place here, in 1825.

Above is a close-up of the pediment of the victory monument at left.

You get a whole new view of the War of 1812 in Russia. One of our guides claimed that the horse on one of the equestrian statues at the Nevsky Bridge had Napoleon's face engraved on a testicle. We looked the next time we got to the bridge, but didn't see anything. Then again, we didn't want to make a spectacle of ourselves by looking too closely.

This is the Hall of 1812 in the Hermitage, which used to be the room where the palace sentries mustered. It contains the portraits of over 300 key figures on the Russian side, all painted by the English artist George Dawe. What amazed us was that every one had a personality. You could pick out the ladies' men, the arrogant ones, the friendly ones... the differences were that distinct. The painting at the end of the hall is Tsar Alexander II.

The famous Peacock Clock, made by a celebrated English clockmaker in the 18th century. Each Wednesday at 5:00 pm, the Peacock Clock is wound up. The gilded peacock spreads its tail, the "feathers" raise upright, and the whole bird rotates around. Unfortunately, by 5 PM Wednesday we were on a plane from Frankfort to Newark.