Many people who come to the Hermitage museum are also interested in visiting its treasuries – so called Gold and Diamond rooms. Actually it’s rather hard to do as the number of visitors and consequently number of tickets is strictly limited – you can visit Hermitage Gold and Diamond rooms only with a guided tour. You need to buy a separate ticket for each treasury (that is, you need to have your ticket to the Hermitage + ticket to one of the treasuries). “Gold” and “Diamond” room tickets have the same price – 300 rubles each at the moment. Don’t try to visit both treasuries in one day – it’s impossible, just pick up one that is more interesting for you. It’s prohibited to take pictures inside treasuries ( I borrowed the ones I use from the Hermitage website)
Difference between Gold and Diamond room collections
The Hermitage Diamond room is famous for priceless gems that used to belong to the Romanov family as well as diplomatic gifts to Russian court. Also there you can find items by Faberge (they made not only Easter eggs, by the way) and some ancient gold. I would say that the Diamond room is more popular than “Gold” room at the moment though both are really interesting.
The Golden room of the Hermitage concentrates on gold from Ancient Greece, boasts the best in the world collection of Scythian gold and demonstrates some extremely beautiful jewelry from Eastern countries.
Important notice: it’s very hard to get tickets to the Gold and Diamond rooms, especially in summer. Unlike the tickets to the main buildings of the Hermitage, tickets to the treasuries are not sold online. If you want to have them, you need to come very early in the morning and be one of the first people in the line to the ticket office. Usually they have only one scheduled tour of Gold and Diamond rooms in English a day (they have information about them next to ticket offices).
Take your Hermitage museum tour and discover the main treasures of St Petersburg with a private guide!