Three Hermitage exhibitions this autumn: Gerasimov, Dialogue of the Arts and the permanent collection — a route

The Hermitage this autumn is dense: one temporary show in a corner most visitors never find, one evening concert most tourists skip, and the permanent collection that is still the reason to come to St Petersburg in the first place. All three fit into a single trip; the order matters more than the choice.

🖼 Day 1 — permanent collection, morning

Start with the main museum. Open at 11:00 (Wednesday and Thursday until 20:00). The ticket is time-slotted — book online a day ahead on hermitagemuseum.org to skip the Palace Square queue. For a first visit the sensible route is: Jordan Staircase → Peter the Great's rooms → the 1812 Gallery → Pavilion Hall with the Peacock Clock → Rembrandt → Spanish and Italian halls on the second floor. Three to four hours; leave the French impressionists in the Palace Headquarters wing for another day — it is a separate ticket.

🎭 Day 1 — Gerasimov in the Hermitage Theatre foyer, afternoon

Walk through the main complex to the Hermitage Theatre on the Neva embankment side. The Gerasimov exhibition sits in the foyer and is free with the general Hermitage ticket. Forty-fifty landscapes and interiors; forty-five minutes. Closes an hour before an evening performance, so a 15:00 visit works. More on the show: «Between Phenomena» at the Hermitage Theatre.

💎 Day 1 — Dialogue of the Arts, 30 October only

If your dates include 30 October, cap the day with the Dialogue of the Arts evening on glyptics in the Hermitage Theatre, 19:30. A separate ticket, sold on hermitage-theatre.ru about three weeks ahead. Ninety minutes, one interval. Not a lecture — the curator talks with a musician and shows objects you otherwise never see. More: Dialogue of the Arts, 30 October.

🚶 Day 2 — Benois Wing (Russian Museum, not the Hermitage)

If the trip stretches to two days, do not keep both inside the Hermitage. The Aivazovsky retrospective in the Benois Wing of the Russian Museum is a better pair for the Hermitage than any Hermitage sub-collection — the two institutions complement each other.

🚕 Logistics across the two days

The main Hermitage closes between 18:00 and 20:00 depending on the day of the week. After an evening at the Hermitage Theatre the metro queue at Admiralteyskaya is long. Book a transfer in Saint Petersburg via RideClu with pick-up at the Dvortsovy Proezd gate — it is the fastest way home.

🏨 Where to stay

For a two-day Hermitage trip the practical radius is Nevsky Prospekt and Admiralteyskaya. From inside the circle you walk back to the hotel after the evening events in fifteen minutes. Short-term flats in central Saint Petersburg on Tutkakdoma in that radius tend to book up a week before any Hermitage evening — plan ahead.

Three Hermitage events in one trip is enough; four is too many. Save the French impressionists in the Palace Headquarters wing for the next visit — that is a whole day on its own, and the Hermitage rewards the second trip more than the first.

Cover photo: Juan Francisco Contreras Fernández, CC BY-SA 4.0, Викисклад