To visit St. Petersburg and not visit the Hermitage? Traditionally, this is a mandatory point of the excursion program. However, not everyone is familiar with all the branches of this museum. One of the branches that certainly deserves the attention of visitors is the restoration and exhibition complex "Old Village" of the Hermitage.
About the complex
The project for the construction of the storage facility, which began at the beginning of the century, was associated with the need to move part of the workshops and collections from the main building of the Hermitage, whose area was already not enough to store all the exhibits.
The result of the project was a magnificent marble structure ("building in a frame"), decorated with the famous Karelian petroglyphs, ancient rock paintings. The Hermitageās Old Village fund vault is located in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg, 37a Zausadebnaya Street.
The complex includes storage buildings, biocontrol, restoration, exhibition and lecture, technical buildings, a round garden.
The peculiarity of the storage facility is the availability of special equipment (mobile racks and display cases, boxes) that allows you to easily move exhibits.
Hermitage's "Old Village": exhibitions and expositions
Even if you have been to the main building of the Hermitage and are familiar with its exposition, the collections of the restoration complex will pleasantly surprise you. Here are a huge number of unique exhibits previously inaccessible to the public.
Among the permanent exhibition collections:
- storage room for furniture and household items of the XVI-XIX centuries. (about 1000 exhibits);
- dynamic exposition "Trellis Theater" with musical accompaniment (special metal structures move along rails, control them remotely);
- carriage hall;
- frame construction "tent of the Turkish Sultan" (a gift to Emperor Alexander III from the Emir of Bukhara);
- gallery of icon painting;
- Department of Western European Art (more than 200 exhibits);
- Department of Russian culture (about 3.5 thousand paintings of Russian painters, Old Russian murals, sculpture);
- armory;
- costume gallery.
Excursions
Features of the restoration of the storage facility do not provide for free visits. You can get into the storerooms only as part of the excursion group.
Excursions in the Hermitage at the "Old Village" take place daily, four times a day, starting from 11.00, from Wednesday to Sunday. Every first Thursday of the month there is a discount for visitors.
The length of the route reaches a kilometer, the tour lasts an average of about one and a half hours.
The format of the excursions is not quite usual, because the "Old Village" is primarily a museum repository. The guide opens and locks the doors to the halls with a magnetic card, the exhibits are not signed and often change (some of them are sent for temporary storage to other branches).
Interactive thematic tours are organized for children (from six to eleven years old). During such excursions, the guys not only get acquainted with the exhibits, but also answer quiz questions, perform interesting tasks, and in the end they look for a real "treasure chest".
Workshops of the complex
In addition to exploring the treasures of the Hermitageās āOld Villageā storehouse, visitors can go to restoration workshops and watch the work of specialists.
For example, in a metal restoration workshop, the original appearance of not only weapons, but also old book salaries is restored.
The specialists of the easel oil painting workshop, reconstructing the canvas, check reproductions and x-ray the painted layers.
The foundation also has a class for the visually impaired and blind children āThe past at their fingertipsā, in the classroom of which they can independently get acquainted with the story using special mock-ups.
Costume Gallery in the Hermitage's Old Village
This exhibition hall is especially popular, and not only among ladies. The gallery of an old costume in the Hermitageās āOld Villageā is an extensive platform (about 700 square meters) with 130 mannequins in dresses of past centuries.
Many of the costumes presented belonged to the imperial family. Here you can see the clothes of Peter I, the uniforms of Peter III, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Nicholas II, luxurious dresses of Catherine II. Among the exhibits - the military uniform of the officer and general staff of the army of the XVIII-XX centuries.
Magnificent ladies' toilets of the 19th-20th centuries are also represented: dresses, veils, hats, shoes, valise bags, fans, travel trunks.
In addition to old costumes, one can get acquainted with the works of modern fashion designers, for example, F. Khalafova, Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan. Her collections are created mainly from chiffon and silk, differ in oriental flavor and national motifs.
Tours take place twice a week (Saturdays and Thursdays).
Visitors reviews
The Hermitageās āOld Villageā today attracts not only connoisseurs of museum art, but also beginners who are just discovering this type of cultural leisure.
If we turn to the numerous comments on the work of the restoration and exhibition complex, then among them we can hardly find the negative ones. On the contrary, most visitors leave the most flattering reviews about the museum.
First of all, this concerns the building of the complex itself. Its originality, spaciousness, and competent organization of internal and external space are noted.
The huge collection of the storehouse (more than a million exhibits!), As well as the opportunity to appear in real museum stores, attracts visitors, because in a traditional museum access is usually closed.
The work of the guides and the Hermitage staff who are truly passionate about their work and ready to share the most interesting information is highly appreciated.