On 19 May 2026, the exhibition Catherine I began its run in the Forehall and Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace. This large-scale project, marking the 300th anniversary of the reign of Catherine (Yekaterina Alexeyevna), launches a series of Hermitage exhibitions on Russian emperors and empresses and is devoted to the remarkable life of the first woman to occupy the Russian throne.

The exhibition examines Catherine I's activities during her reign (1725–1727), when the initiatives of her husband, Emperor Peter the Great, were continued and partially brought to completion. In this period, the Academy of Sciences opened, the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was fully instituted, the construction of imperial residences continued, and a monetary reform was carried out.

The display in the Nicholas Hall is organized chronologically, tracing the key stages in the life of Catherine (born Marta Skavronska): her capture at the fall of Marienburg to Russian forces in 1702; the Pruth Campaign of 1711; her wedding to Peter I in 1712; her coronation in Moscow on 7 May 1724; the death and burial of the Emperor in Saint Petersburg in 1725; and the final two years of her life, when Catherine ruled Russia in person. A separate section of the exhibition will be devoted to the suburban residences where the first empress lived.

Never before has the legacy of Catherine I been presented on such a scale, and a significant portion of the exhibits are on public display for the first time. The exhibition comprises over 450 objects associated with her memory, including carriages, paintings and engravings, costumes, jewellery, tapestries, coins and honours. Together, they trace the path of an extraordinary woman who rose from the humblest origins to the status of imperial majesty.

The exhibition has been organized by the State Hermitage with the participation of the Museums of the Moscow Kremlin, the National Library of Russia, the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Russian History and the Central Naval Museum. The curator is Sergei Alexeyevich Nilov, Head of the Winter Palace of Peter the Great sector in the Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture.