Musée du Louvre

The Louvre’s story begins in 1190, when King Philippe Auguste constructed a fortress on the right bank of the Seine to defend Paris against Viking raids and English invasion. For centuries, this imposing stronghold served as the royal treasury and arsenal. Remnants of the medieval fortress can still be explored in the museum’s basement galleries.

In the 14th century, King Charles V transformed the fortress into a more comfortable royal residence, and successive monarchs continued to expand and embellish the palace. The Renaissance brought Italian architects and artists to Paris, and under François I the palace began to accumulate the art collection that would become legendary — including works by Leonardo da Vinci himself.

When Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre was left to house the royal art collections and the Académies. Then, on August 10, 1793, during the French Revolution, the Musée Central des Arts opened in the Grande Galerie, making the former palace of kings freely accessible to all citizens for the first time.

Napoleon greatly expanded the collections through military campaigns across Europe and Egypt, and the museum was briefly renamed the Musée Napoléon. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Louvre continued to grow through acquisitions, donations, and archaeological expeditions.

A transformative moment came in 1989 when President François Mitterrand inaugurated I.M. Pei’s iconic Glass Pyramid in the Cour Napoléon as part of the Grand Louvre project. Initially controversial, the modernist glass-and-metal structure has become one of the most recognizable landmarks in Paris and serves as the museum’s main entrance.

Today the Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, welcoming nearly 8.8 million visitors annually. Its vast collection spans over 480,000 objects, with approximately 35,000 on display across 72,735 square meters of gallery space in three wings: Denon, Sully, and Richelieu.