Virtuoso Insights - October/November 2008 - (Page 68) At the top of every must-see list is the Hermitage. This world-famous, 1,050-room museum houses the czars’ private art collection, which rivals any in the world. Comprising six buildings and containing more than three million pieces, the Hermitage can make you dizzy just thinking about it. If possible, have your Virtuoso travel advisor arrange a private tour that includes the by-request-only Treasury Department, or Gold Room, which consists of ancient works of gold along with the czars’ jewels. Built to protect against invading Swedish forces, Peter and Paul Fortress is considered the city’s birthplace and contains a number of important structures including its gild-spired cathedral, burial site for the Russian Emperors. The ornate St. Isaac’s Cathedral is the world’s third-largest domed cathedral, able to hold up to 14,000 worshippers at one time; head to the cupola and soak in the panorama. Not to be outdone, the Russian Orthodox Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, built on the site where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, contains nearly 81,000 square feet of mosaics, said to be more than any other church in the world. Imperial Russia is alive and well at Catherine Palace, a dazzling Baroque mansion draped in powder-blue and gold and noted for its mirrored The church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood, built between 1883 and 1907 and (bottom) Sir Anthony van Dyck’s A Family Group hangs in the grand halls of the Hermitage. more russian Dolls on page 70 P 68 Virtuoso insights
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