The Hermitage Theatre (Saint Petersburg)

The Hermitage Theatre, one of the oldest theatres in Russia, was built by order of Catherine the Great in 1782-1785 to a design by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. It was constructed in the austere Neoclassical style on the site of what was once Peter I's Winter Palace. Its unusual auditorium was designed to resemble an amphitheatre, the walls and columns decorated with coloured imitation marble. Statues of Apollo and the nine Muses are placed in niches, with bas-relief portraits of famous musicians and poets above them.