Tuesdays Tunes

A continuation of our visit to St Petersburg, Russia. We went on a tour of the hermitage later that evening. the Hermitage is in the Winter Palace.St. Petersburg’s most famous building, the Winter Palace not only physically dominates Palace Square and the south embankment of the Neva River, but also plays a central political, symbolic, and cultural role in the three-century history of the city. St. Petersburg’s most popular visitor attraction, and one of the world’s largest and most prestigious museums, the Hermitage is a must-see for all first-time travellers to the city. With over 3 million items in its collection, it also definitely rewards repeat visits, and new-comers can only hope to get a brief taste of the riches on offer here, from Impressionist masterpieces to fascinating Oriental treasures. One estimate has it that you would need eleven years to view each exhibit on display for just one minute,

WE were told the story of the cats . The Hermitage cats are a group of cats residing in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The museum has a press secretary dedicated to the cats, and three people act as caretakers. The cats live in the museum’s basement, and they also appear on the embankment and on the square during the summer. In previous eras they roamed throughout the museum galleries.In 2010, Maria Khaltunenwho directs the museum’s cat programme, stated that there were 60 cats on the museum grounds, even though the staff has a joke that officially the museum is only supposed to have 50 cats. Irina Popovets, who became the head of the cat department, stated that the cats were “as well-known as our collections”.In May 2013, the count had grown to 74 cats, of both sexes (but neutered), according to Haltunen There are kitchens for preparing their food (“they all have different preferences”), and even a small hospital.

We then continued the tour of the museum. We saw the Peacock Clock which was made in the 1740 by John Hawke. It is very impressive. When the clock strikes the hour, the peacock spreads it tail feathers, and looks around, the owl looks around and taps its foot, in time with the striking hour and the mouse moves. It still runs once a week and is very impressive.

We also saw many beautiful paintings by the great Masters. The ones that stand out the most in my memory, are The Lute Player, by Caravaggio, The Prodigal Son by Rembrant, A picture of Catherine the Great, done in Mosaic pieces, the Madonna and Child by Di Vinci and the Dutch Genra Paintings, reflections of the Dutch society of that time. Also Painting by Raphael and FraLippo. There were also huge urns that were made out of Malachite. Malachite Drawing Room, decorated for Alexandra Fedorovna, wife of Nicholas I, using over two tones of Ural malachite, the Nicholas Hall, which was used as the palace’s main ballroom