The Cats Of The Hermitage

The Cats Of The Hermitage

- Candilee Jackson

Considered the world’s largest museum of art and world culture, Saint Petersburg, Russia’s State Hermitage Museum, got its start in 1764 “when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant, Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky.” The museum opened its doors to the public on Saint Catherine’s Day in 1852, with its opening celebrated annually on this date. Of the six buildings comprising the collection, five are open to the public; over three million items remain in storage and are moved to viewing areas from time to time.

Among the unbelievable beauty of the Hermitage’s many art collections is another, more unusual collection: a clowder of cats! The buildings were originally the winter palace of Russian royalty and the cats have been permanent residents since 1745. At that time, Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, “ordered cats to be placed in the palace to control the mice.”