The State Hermitage Museum founded in 1764 by Russian Empress Catherine the Great in the heart of historic St Petersburg, occupies an ensemble of magnificent buildings on the bank of the River Neva. The grandest of all is the Winter Palace-the former residence of the Russian tsars-designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Within the walls of this artistic enclave reside the Hermitage collections, about three million works that trace the development of world art and culture from the Stone Age till today.