The Louvre

UNESCO: Part of the "Banks of the Seine" World Heritage Site (1991)
Pyramid: Designed by I. M. Pei, opened 1989; 673 glass panes

The Louvre is the world's largest and most visited art museum, but it was a fortress before it was a palace, and a palace before it was a museum. Its 800-year architectural history mirrors the entire arc of French civilisation — from the defensive walls of a medieval king to the glass pyramid of a modern republic. The collection spans 9,000 years of human creation, from Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets to Delacroix's barricades.

From Fortress to Palace

Philippe Auguste built the original Louvre around 1190 as a fortified tower to protect Paris's western flank during the Crusades. You can see the foundations of his medieval fortress in the basement gallery — massive stone walls and a circular keep, excavated in the 1980s and displayed in situ. It is the most direct physical link in Paris to the city's medieval past.

François I demolished the fortress in 1546 and commissioned architect Pierre Lescot to build a Renaissance palace on the site. François was obsessed with Italian culture — he had brought Leonardo da Vinci to France, installed him at Amboise, and acquired the Mona Lisa directly from the artist (or his estate). The transformation of the Louvre from fortress to art palace was, in many ways, François's doing.

Every subsequent monarch added to the building. Henri IV connected the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace via the Grande Galerie — at 460 metres, it was the longest building in the world. Louis XIV expanded the courtyards and added Claude Perrault's magnificent eastern colonnade, but ultimately abandoned the Louvre for Versailles in 1682. For the next century, the palace served as studios and apartments for artists, academics, and squatters.

The Museum

The Revolution transformed the Louvre's purpose forever. On 10 August 1793, the opened to the public — the royal collections now belonged to the people. Napoleon filled it with plunder from his European campaigns (much of which was returned after 1815), and successive governments continued to expand both the building and its holdings.

The Collection

The Louvre's collection is organised into eight departments:

Egyptian Antiquities — The Seated Scribe, the Crypt of Osiris
Near Eastern Antiquities — Code of Hammurabi, Winged Bulls of Khorsabad
Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities — Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace
Islamic Art — 18,000 objects under a shimmering glass-and-metal roof (opened 2012)
Paintings — The Mona Lisa, Liberty Leading the People, The Coronation of Napoleon
Sculpture — Michelangelo's Slaves, Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss
Decorative Arts — Crown jewels, Apartments of Napoleon III
Prints and Drawings — 140,000 works, displayed in rotation

The Mona Lisa

Leonardo's portrait occupies Room 711 (the Salle des États) behind bulletproof glass in a climate-controlled case, facing Veronese's enormous Wedding at Cana. The room is always crowded — prepare for a scrum of raised phones. The painting is smaller than most visitors expect (77 × 53 cm) and the experience of seeing it through a sea of screens can be anticlimactic. The trick is to arrive at opening time and head directly there, or to visit on Wednesday or Friday evenings when the museum stays open until 9:45 PM and the crowds thin.

The Pyramid

I. M. Pei's glass pyramid, opened in 1989, was as controversial as the Eiffel Tower a century earlier. President Mitterrand commissioned it as the centrepiece of his project, which reclaimed the Richelieu wing from the Ministry of Finance and created the vast underground lobby, the Carrousel du Louvre. The pyramid is now beloved — 673 rhombus and triangular glass panes in a steel frame, 21 metres high, flanked by three smaller pyramids and an inverted pyramid that hangs from the Carrousel ceiling.

Practical Visitor Information

Getting there: Métro Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre (Lines 1, 7); the Carrousel entrance is less crowded than the Pyramid
Tickets: €22 adults; free under 18 and under 26 for EU/EEA residents; free first Saturday evening of each month (6–9:45 PM)
Hours: Wednesday–Monday 9:00–18:00, Wednesday and Friday until 21:45; closed Tuesdays
Time needed: Minimum 3 hours for highlights; a full day barely scratches the surface
Strategy: Pick one or two departments per visit. Trying to see everything is exhausting and counterproductive.
Budget tip: The museum pass (€22) is cheaper than many comparable institutions; the free Saturday evening slots are excellent value

To walk every gallery in the Louvre would cover 14 kilometres. No one sees it all in a day. The best approach is to choose a theme — Egyptian antiquities one visit, French painting another — and let yourself be surprised by what you find along the way.

france0