A hermitage is etymologically a "desert place" — named for the early Christian monks who fled to the Egyptian wilderness to find God in solitude.
The dwelling of a hermit; a secluded retreat or residence, especially one used for religious contemplation.
From Old French hermitage, from hermite (hermit), from Late Latin eremita, from Greek erēmitēs (one who lives in the desert), from erēmos (solitary, uninhabited, desert). Key roots: erēmos (Ancient Greek: "solitary, uninhabited, desert").
The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, one of the world's greatest art museums, got its name because Catherine the Great initially used the rooms to house her private art collection as a personal retreat — a hermitage in the metaphorical sense. The word's root, Greek eremos (desert), connects it to the Desert Fathers of early Christianity, ascetics who withdrew to the Egyptian desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries to live as hermits. Many medieval hermitages were built at