Hermitage

Founded by Catherine the Great in 1764, State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg opened to the public in 1852. Currently, the museum contains over three million works, most of which are not on permanent display, but are shown in periodic special exhibits. There are more than 17,000 paintings by artists such as Goya, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Velazquez, Cezanne, Matisse, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Titian, Picasso, Degas, and hundreds more.

Other features you won't want to miss include the 8.4-foot tall Kolyvan Vase made of jasper and weighing 42,000 pounds. It is so large that it had to be set in place before the walls were erected around it. Also be certain to tour the open portions of the Russian royal families' Winter Palace and the jewelry and decorative art exhibit with pieces dating back to 4,000 BC. The floor in the Athena Room displays a genuine early Christian mosaic from the 4th century.

Of the many separate collections in the museum, the broadest categories include: Pre-historic art; Oriental art; Impressionistic and post-impressionist art; Egyptian antiquities; Classical Greek Antiquities; the Italian Renaissance; the Dutch Golden Age; and of course Russian art.