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Winter Palace - The first palace was begun by
Peter the Great in 1718. The much larger, main Winter Palace was constructed
during 1754-62 by the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. It contains 1,057 rooms,
117 staircases, 1,786 doors, and 1945 windows. Tied to it are a number of other
buildings including the Old Hermitage (1775-84) and the New Hermitage
(1839-52). This is now the most famous of Russian museums. It has extensive
military art and other military related holdings, much of which is not open to
the public. The art collection was begun in 1764 with the acquisitio nof 225
paintings from Berlin. Now the collection includes 2,790,000 items.
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