State Hermitage Museum
Travel to the city of St. Petersburg to visit the State Hermitage Museum complex, on the site of the former Winter Palace of Russia’s tsars, built in 1754. Last occupied by Tsar Nicolas II in 1917 whose abdication ended tsarist rule in Russia, the Hermitage Museum (hermitagemuseum.org) is now the home of one of the world’s best art collections, according to the U.S. State Department. The buildings on the museum’s campus include a theater, porcelain factory and the Menshikov Palace.