This section represents the history of the Hermitage Museum that was started in the 18th century as a private collection of Empress Catherine II and in the 20th century became one of the largest museums in the world. Click the date on the chronological scale and you will quickly get access to the information about the event you are interested in.

1754-1762	Construction of the Winter Palace commissioned by Empress Catherine II. Architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771)
1762	Empress Catherine II's accession to the Throne
1764	Empress Catherine II acquired Johann Ernest Gotzkowski's collection, the first collection of the Museum
1764-1775	The construction of the Small Hermitage
1769	The acquisition of Count Heirich von Bruhl's collection
1771-1787	The construction of the Large Hermitage
1772	The acquisition of Baron Pierre Crozat's collection
1779	Acquisition of Lord P. Walpole's collection
1781	Acquisition of Count Badoin's collection
1783	Construction of the Hermitage Theatre
1787	Acquisition of the Collection of John Lyde-Brown, London
1795	Creation of the St George Hall
1815	Acquisition of Empress Josephine's collection
1825	Emperor Nicholas I's accession to the throne
1826	Creation of the Military Gallery of 1812 by Carlo Rossi
1830-1840	The creation of interiors after a design of Alexander Bryulov
1833	Creation of the Fieldmarshals' Hall and Peter I's Room (Small Throne Room) by the architect Auguste Montferrand
1837	Fire in the Winter Palace
1840	Reconstruction of the state halls of the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837 by Vasily Stasov
1850	The acquisition of the collection from the gallery of Cristoforo Barbarigo
1852	Opening of the Imperial museum New Hermitage
1858	Construction of the Pavilion Hall by the architect Andrei Stakenschneider
1860	Creation of state rooms in the Large Hermitage by the architect Andrei Stakenschneider
1861	Acquisition of Marquis Gian Pietro Campana's collection
1865	Acquisition of the painting Madonna and Child (Litta Madonna) by Leonardo da Vinci
1870	Acquisition of the painting Madonna and Child (Conestabile Madonna) by Raphael
1884	Acquisition of Alexander Basilewski's collection
1885	Acquisition of the collection of the former Tsarskoye Selo Arsenal
1895	Emperor Nicholas II's accession to the throne
1914	Acquisition of the painting Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna) by Leonardo da Vinci
1914	Beginning of the World War I. Housing a hospital in state rooms of the Winter Palace.
1917	February Revolution and Emperor Nicholas II's abdication
1917	Deposition of the Provisional Government
1917	The Winter Palace and the Hermitage were announced state museums
1920	The Hermitage gave 460 items to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
1920-1930	Acquisition of items from nationalized private collections
1932-1934	Sale of Hermitage collections and giving works of art to museums of the Union Republics of the USSR
1941	Beginning of the Great Patriotic War and evacuation of Hermitage collections to the Urals
1945	Opening of the Museum after the Great Patriotic War
1948	Acquisition of the collection of European paintings of the late 19th - early 20th centuries from the former collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov
1996	By decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin the State Hermitage is under the direct patronage of the President of the Russian Federation