Cat Day in the Hermitage. Cat Day in the Hermitage Hermitage cats

Today in the St. Petersburg cafe “Republic of Cats” on Yakubovicha Street (from 15.00 to 21.00) there will be a traditional distribution “All Shades of Cat”, where everyone can take home the Hermitage cat they like.

According to Komsomolskaya Pravda in St. Petersburg, this year a maritime theme was chosen for this event.

They always protected the priceless exhibits of the museum from mice and rats and in former times served in the imperial palace with the rank of Life Guards.

The cats are now respected staff members of the museum. All animals are sterilized and each of them has a passport, veterinary card, own bowl, tray and sleeping basket. The uniform of the tailed employees is a yellow neck bow.

Cats can move freely around the Hermitage, but they are not allowed to enter the museum halls.

The network of basements itself (almost two dozen kilometers) where cats live and hunt is called the “big cat basement.”

Comfortable living conditions have been created for cats - the basements are always dry and warm, all rooms are equipped with small passages, allowing them freedom of movement

There is no item in the museum’s budget for keeping cats; food is purchased with donations from visitors, museum workers, and sponsors (including money sent from abroad).

In the year of the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage, the director of the museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, announced that he had set a limit of 50 cats; the museum would give away the “surplus” to good hands. The ranks are replenished mainly by alien outbred animals; often they are planted by their owners.

Before handing over the cat, a conversation is held with the potential owner, the coordinates and passport details of the latter are recorded. Priority is given to married couples; employees are not ready to give cats to communal and rented apartments.

The new owner receives a certificate “Owner of the Hermitage Cat”, which gives the opportunity for lifelong free access to exhibition halls.

There is a Club of Friends of Hermitage Cats at the museum. According to the director of the museum M.B. Piotrovsky, “cats are a legend of Hermitage life and its integral part,” and “interviews and filming about cats are no less common than about Rembrandt.”

“Day of the Hermitage Cat” is a special project developed at the State Hermitage Museum and dedicated to the cats living in the museum.

As the director of the Hermitage Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky notes, “cats have become a very important part of our Hermitage life and one of the significant Hermitage legends.”

The Hermitage cats trace their history back to the beginning of the 18th century, when Peter I settled a cat brought from Holland in the Winter Palace. Later, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a “Decree on the expulsion of cats to the court,” in which she ordered “to find in Kazan the best and largest cats that are convenient for catching mice... And if anyone has such stored cats, they should be announced for speedy departure to provincial office." Catherine the Great, the founder of the Hermitage, gave cats the status of guards of art galleries.

“The Day of the Hermitage Cat” is a holiday that has become a wonderful and good tradition in recent years.

The program “Hermitage Cat Day - 2017” was prepared by the State Hermitage with the support of: ProAnimale, Royal Canin, Ivanko Company, Elvet Clinic, PrettyCat, ZhK Nevskaya Palitra, NON-STOP Ultra LLC, RoyalTent LLC, Beta-Com LLC, Transelektro LLC, Hermit Park LLC, Protein RA, Star Group LLC, Hermitage Foundation. XXI century", Museum On Line Inc.

Program

12.00
The opening ceremony of the “Hermitage Cat Day 2017”:
Summing up the results of the school competition “The Hermitage Cat’s Journey to the East”;
Open competition “My Hermitage cat” (Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace).

14.00
Exhibition-event “The cat is bad that does not dream of becoming a tiger” (hall 351, third floor of the Winter Palace). Open until May 21, 2017.

12.00 – 16.00

12.00 – 16.00
Game “Reading Ovid, or Traveling with the Hermitage Cat” (in the halls of the museum).

Walk “Where the Cats Live”:
Exhibition of school works and creative projects of students of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television;
Meeting with the Hermites (project “The Hermites. A St. Petersburg Fairy Tale”, basement of the Winter Palace).

“Art Workshop” (Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace).

On May 13, the State Hermitage will host the next “Hermitage Cat Day” - a special project developed and dedicated to cats living in the museum. The Hermitage cats trace their history back to the beginning of the 18th century, when Peter I settled a cat brought from Holland in the Winter Palace.

Later, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a “Decree on the expulsion of cats to the court,” in which she ordered “to find in Kazan the best and largest cats that are convenient for catching mice... And if anyone has such stored cats, they should be announced for speedy departure to provincial office." Catherine the Great, the founder of the Hermitage, gave cats the status of guards of art galleries.

Every year the Hermitage holds a special program during which museum visitors have a unique opportunity to meet the heroes of the holiday - the Hermitage cats. St. Petersburg artists hold drawing competitions in the Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace, and in the halls of the museum, visitors can help the Hermitage cat find masterpieces from the Hermitage collection. https://kuda-spb.ru/event/den-ermitazhnogo-kota-2017/

The cats even have a real Hermitage registration, as there is a note about here:

and there was another heroic page in the history of Leningrad cats, after the blockade they saved the city and the Hermitage also from hordes of rats:

http://amarok-man.livejournal.com/264324.html "How cats saved Leningrad"