The Louvre Museum – A Background on French Tourist Attraction

The Louvre, which opened at the end of the 18th century, is France’s most famous museum. The Louvre (Musée du Louvre) is situated in an enormous palace in Paris known as the Louvre Palace. It was constructed on the right bank site of Philip Augustus’ 12th-century castle. The Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, with a collection ranging from ancient civilizations to the mid-19th century.

Also the world’s largest museum, the Louvre houses thousands of artworks in three sections: the Denon, Richelieu, and Sully wings, in a beautiful structure formerly the home of French kings. Throughout the centuries, the 12th-century stronghold was enlarged and restored multiple times. Before it became a museum, it was turned into the home of the French Kings by Francis I. It has been said that King Charles V and Philippe II lived in this palace, which they decorated with their ever-expanding art collection.

However, once Louis XIV relocated his court to Versailles in1682, the Louvre ceased a royal home. The majestic 160,000-square-meter-wide structure was transformed into one of the world’s most important museums.

In 1989, a glass pyramid designed by I.M Pei, an American architect, was built in the palace’s main courtyard to break up the monotony of the Louvre’s front. It now serves as the museum’s primary entrance. I.M. Pei, an American architect, designed it.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Louvre building complex underwent extensive renovations to make the historic museum more accessible and pleasant to visitors. A massive underground structure of service buildings and public amenities was opened to that aim. Finally, the whole Louvre was dedicated to museums in 1993.

The Louvre’s painting collection is one of the world’s most significant, encompassing all periods of European art from the Renaissance to the 1848 Revolutions. The permanent collection of the Louvre contains about 300,000 works of art from before 1948. From the Liberty leading the People by Eugene Delacroix to the wedding Cana by Paolo Veronese.

The Louvre houses some of the most impressive paintings in the world. Further, the Louvre also holds some of the world’s most famous sculptures, including Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue, The Seated Scribe, an ancient Egyptian sculpture, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace a Hellenistic sculpture, among others.

When the Musée d’Orsay (a museum in France) opened in 1986, it took over the Louvre’s collection of works painted after that date. There is no match to the Louvre’s collection of French paintings from the 15th to the 19th centuries. However, it also houses numerous masterpieces by Italian Renaissance painters, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and works by Flemish and Dutch Baroque painters.

The vast collection is divided into several divisions, including Oriental Antiquities, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek Antiquities, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities, and Roman and Etruscan Antiquities. The museum also features a part dedicated to the palace’s history, including the Louvre, Islamic art, paintings, sculptures, and graphic art during the Middle Ages.

In the 21st century, the Louvre has expanded to additional places. The Louvre’s satellite facility in Lens, northern France, opened to the public in 2012. The museum, created by Japanese architects, was meant to stimulate the region’s economy and relieve crowds at the Paris location. The Louvre Abu Dhabi opened five years later, following nearly a decade of delays, in a building built by French architect Jean Nouvel on Saadiyat Island, the emirate’s planned cultural capital.

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