Louvre

The first royal "Castle of the Louvre" was founded in what was then the Western edge of Paris by Philip Augustus in 1190, as a fortified royal palace to defend Paris on its West against the Vikings. The first building in the existing Louvre was begun in 1535, after demolition of the old Castle. The architect Pierre Lescot introduced to Paris the Renaissance, by employing Renaissance building style in the Châteaux of the Loire.

During his reign (1589-1610) King Henry IV added the Grande Galerie. Henry IV, a promoter of Fine Arts, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work in the building. This huge addition was built along the bank of the River Seine and at the time was the longest edifice of its kind in the world.

Louis XIII (1610-1643) completed the Denon Wing, which had been started by Catherine Medici in 1560. It was fully renovated, as a part of the Grand Louvre Renovation Program. The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII. It was part of the Ministry of Economy of France, which took up most of the North wing of the palace. The Ministry was moved and the wing was remodeled and turned into Art galleries, completed by the 200th anniversary of the building's first introduction to the public as a museum, which took place on November 8, 1793 during the French Revolution.

Napoleon I built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumph Arch) and the Jardin du Carrousel in 1805 in commemoration to his victories. In those times this garden was the entrance to the Palais des Tuileries. The Louvre was still being added to by Napoleon III. The new wing of 1852-1857, by architects Visconti and Hector Lefuel, represents the Second Empire's version of Neo-Baroque full of detail and sculptures. his building project concluded in 1876.

The central courtyard with the Pyramide, on the axis of the Champs-Élysées, was completed in 1989, and serves as the main entrance to the museum.

The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass pyramid commissioned by then French president François Mitterrand, designed by Ieoh Ming Pei and was inaugurated in 1989. The Carre Gallery, where the Mona Lisa was exhibited, was also renovated. The pyramid covers the Louvre entry hall and forms part of the new entrance into the museum.

Since many of the works in the Louvre are viewed as belonging to a specific exhibition - for example, French Painting, Near Eastern Art, or Sculpture - established some 200 years ago and growing out of usable space, it was decided that a satellite building would be created outside of Paris to allow for a larger number of visitors. Furnished with the Louvre's core Art pieces (and not from long-lost or stored works in the basement of the Louvre as some rumors indicate), the new satellite will show works side-by-side, cross-referenced and juxtaposed from all periods and cultures, creating an entirely new experience for the museum visitor. The project completion is planned for the second half of 2010. The building will be capable of exhibiting 500 - 600 major works of Art, with a core gallery dedicated to the human figure over several millenia. This new building is expected to receive ca. 500,000 visitors per annum. There were orginally six city candidates for this project: Amiens, Arras, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Lens, and Valenciennes. On November 29, 2004, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin chose Lens, Pas-de-Calais to be the site of the new Louvre building. Le Louvre-Lens was the name chosen for the museum.

The new satellite museum, funded by the local regional government, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, will have 22,000 square meters of usable space built on two levels, with semi-permanent exhibition space covering at least 5000 m². There will also be space set aside for rotating temporary exhibitions. The project will also feature a multi-purpose theater and visitable conservation spaces. The building is comprised of a series of low-laying volumes clad in glass and stainless steel in the middle of a 60 acres former mining site, largely reclaimed by nature. The estimated cost for this building is 70 million Euros.

The probably best method of visiting the Louvre is using the public underground system called METRO. You have to get off at Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre. The station is named after the nearby Palais Royal and the Louvre. Until the 1990s its name was Palais Royal; it was renamed when a new access was built from the station to the underground portions of the redeveloped Louvre museum.