The programme supported by UNESCO was devised to implement the reconstruction of the museum complex.
The publication presenting
the "Great Hermitage" programme
In 1999 Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, presented the “Great Hermitage” programme at the international press club in Moscow.
The "Great Hermitage" programme, supported by UNESCO, was devised as a method of reconstructing a large museum complex. It envisages adapting a whole number of historical buildings in the area of Palace Square in St Petersburg to house museum educational, leisure and entertainment facilities, in which galleries and lecture halls will co-exist with museum cafes, restaurants and Internet centres.
The main parameters for the development of the Hermitage have been approved by the government of the Russian Federation and the Russian Ministry of Culture. The programme for the development of the Hermitage and Palace Square has also been confirmed by the governor of St Petersburg.
One of the most important components in the programme for the development of the Great Hermitage is the restoration and reconstruction of the eastern wing of the General Staff building – an outstanding architectural monument from the first third of the19th century. This architectural unit comprises a five-storey building and five inner courtyards, with an overall floor area of 38,200 square metres. The aim of the reconstruction and restoration of the eastern wing of the General Staff will be to bring together such fields of activity as excursions, education and the service sphere.
The General Staff building, constructed in the 1820s-1830s to the design of the architect Carlo Rossi, was intended to accommodate the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, official apartments, a military hospital and other services. In 1989 the State Inspectorate for the Preservation of Leningrad’s Monuments transferred the eastern wing to the State Hermitage.
It is proposed that the eastern wing will house the collection of 19th- and 20th-century art. Its core will be the paintings of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists moved across the square from the Winter Palace. The Hermitage’s famous porcelain collection will be displayed here in all its glorious fullness, while the immense stocks of the Arsenal will find a worthy place along with other military material. A Museum of the Russian Guards has already been created here and a Museum of Private Collections will be opened too.
The reconstruction project proposes making it possible to walk through the building at ground level from the Moika embankment onto Palace Square and Bolshaya Morskaya Street, passing a variety of shops, restaurants and an Internet cafe – in other words, all the extras that form part of a modern major museum complex.
The museum displays will be accommodated on several levels, beginning on the second storey, which visitors will reach by the grand staircase. Here, on the second level, the well-like courtyards will be linked into a large enfilade made up of alternating gardens and large display areas.
