Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum, known as Musée du Louvre in the Romance language, is formally called as the Great Louver, or French Grand Louver. It is a national exhibition hall and French craftsmanship show housed in a portion of a massive castle in Paris that was built on the right bank site of Philip Augustus’ twelfth-century fortress. It is the world’s most visited historical museum, with collections ranging from old developments to the mid-nineteenth century.
History of the Building
Francis I, a superb builder, dismantled the ancient château in 1546 and began construction of another imperial house there—the Louvre, though not in the shape we know today—which practically every future French monarch or queen added to. Under Francis I, just a small portion of the current Louvre was completed by the modeller Pierre Lescot. This unusual area is now the southern portion of the Cour Carrée. During the seventeenth century, Louis XIII and Louis XIV significantly improved the building complex. Cardinal de Richelieu, Louis XIII’s personal pastor, arranged some spectacular displays for the king. Louis XIV and his cleric, Cardinal Mazarin, amassed remarkable handicraft collections, notably those of Charles I of England. The Colonnade of the Louvre was designed by Claude Perrault and Louis Le Vau, and decorated and painted by Charles Le Brun.
Following Louis XIV’s relocation of his court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre no longer served as an imperial residence. The Louvre began exploring its possibilities as an open gallery in the 18th century. The comte d’Angiviller contributed to the creation and planning of the Grande Galerie, and major, rare artifacts continued to arrive. In 1793, the progressive administration made the Musée Central des Arts in the Grande Galerie accessible to the general public. Napoleon established the Cour Carrée and a wing to the north along the lament de Rivoli. Two notable wings, with displays and constructions that extend west, were completed in the nineteenth century, and Napoleon III oversaw the presentation that opened them. The final Louvre was a massive complex of structures forming two main quadrilaterals and enclosing two large yards.
The Louvre complex underwent a significant remodeling in the 1980s and late 1990s to make the old historical center more accessible and appealing to its visitors. To that purpose, a massive underground complex of offices, stores, show spaces, storage areas, and halting zones, as well as a theater, a tourist transportation warehouse, and a café, was erected beneath the Louvre’s main yards of the Cour Napoléon and the Cour du Carrousel. I.M. Pei, an American draftsman, assigned a dubious steel and glass pyramid to serve as the complex’s ground-level entrance in the Cour Napoléon. The underground complex of service offices and open pleasantries was inaugurated in 1989.
The rebuilt Richelieu wing, which France’s Ministry of Finance had previously involved, was opened in 1993 to commemorate the exhibition hall’s 200th anniversary; unexpectedly, the entire Louvre was given over to the historical centre. The second wing, also designed by Pei, comprised more than 230,000 square feet (21,368 square meters) of exhibition space and initially included collections of European painting, decorative expressions, and Islamic craftsmanship. Three glass-roofed interior yards showcased French figures and ancient Assyrian fine arts. The expanding collection of Islamic art in the historical center was subsequently relocated to a dedicated wing, which was inaugurated in 2012. This new section, designed by Italian architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti, features an interior courtyard sheltered beneath a flowing roof constructed of glass and steel, adorned in a golden hue.
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