Louvre

The Louvre is a French palace that rates among the largest palaces in the world is now widely known as one of the most famous museums of art and antiquities in the world. The Louvre was first built as a fortress to protect the Seine River at the south end of Paris from attacks from the English and Normans. In the Fourteenth Century, the structure was expanded and rebuilt by Charles V. However, the Louvre was once again enlarged several years later by the wishes of Catherine de Medicis to join the existing structure of the Louvre with the residence called the Palais des Tuileries. This Grande Galerie was finally completed under the reign of King Henri IV in 1606. Later additions to the Louvre were the Pavillon de I’Horloge and the Cour Carree. In was during the French Revolution in 1793 that the Louvre was opened as a state museum of France and decreed the Musée Central des Arts and its purpose was to primarily display the expansive royal collections of France which consisted of art from all ages. During the reign of Napoleon after the French Revolution, the museum’s name was changed to Musée Napoléon, but was later changed back to the Louvre.

Today, the collections of the Louvre are much more expansive but generally consist of classical and traditional forms of art; for instance, it does not include modern art and the Musée d’Orsay, located very close to the Louvre, holds collections of the Impressionist movement. However, the divisions of the collections for works that are held in the Louvre are: Egyptian antiquities, Greek and Roman antiquities, Oriental antiquities, sculpture from the Middle Ages to more modern times, paintings from all of the major Egyptian schools, and pieces of furniture and other “objets d’art”.