The Louvre Museum
The beauty of the world’s cultures in 35,000 masterpieces
In the heart of Paris, this former French royal palace is now home to the largest and surely most famous art museum in the world. Beside the Seine, at the end of the Tuileries Gardens, the sumptuous building witnessed major events in French history. The original castle was built for King Philippe-Auguste in the 12th century. As it expanded, it continued to be a royal residence up to Louis XIV’s reign, the Sun King preferring his new palace in Versailles.
Following the French Revolution of 1789, the Louvre became a museum, housing incredibly rich collections recalling millennia of culture, from antiquity to the 19th century. A city within a city, its 70,000m2 occupy four storeys across three wings, named after Richelieu, Denon and Sully. It would certainly take more than a day to admire the museum’s 35,000 works!
