The Louvre Museum, inaugurated in 1793 as the Central Museum of the Arts of the Republic in the Louvre Palace, is an ancient medieval fortress built by King Philipe Auguste in 1190 to protect the city of Paris from external conflicts and demolished in stages to make way for the Royal Palace, the royal residence of King Charles V, who reigned from 1364 to 1380.
The Palace of Kings, symbol of power, has been inhabited for centuries by Kings and Emperors whose architectural memory is still preserved in its exterior halls and facades.
During the Hundred Years’ War, the English, in 1420, commanded by Henry V of England, entered in Paris ruined by the civil war, and occupied the Louvre Castle without a fight until 1436. The necessities of war forced the King and his court to abandon Paris and settle in the Loire Valley in the 15th century.
In 1526, King Francis 1st, returning home from his captivity after the defeat of Pavia in 1525 by Charles Quint, decided to transform the old Louvre, his main Parisian residence, into a palace in the beautiful style of the Italian Renaissance. In 1546, he entrusted Pierre Lescot, his architect, with a project to complete the reconstruction of the Louvre. Francis 1st died on 31 March 1547 and his son Henry II continued the work. Lescot is inspired by the Châteaux de la Loire and will build the facade of the “Lescot wing”, considered the birth of French architecture.
Catherine de Medici, Queen of France after the death of her husband Henry II, continued the construction and development work and has build the Tuileries Palace. Other sovereigns have also favoured a series of architectural transformations and expansions within the Palace.
Commissioned in 1983 by President François Mitterrand and inaugurated by himself on March 4, 1988, the controversial Louvre pyramid, designed by architect Leoh Ming Pei, made up of glass and metal, houses the museum’s main entrance. It is the most appreciated masterpiece among the public after the Mona Lisa, the Venus of Milo and The Radeau of the Medusa, The Victory of Samothrace is a masterpiece also very appreciated by the public.
The Louvre Is today the largest museum of art and antiquities in the world. Its collections feature works of Western art from the Middle Ages to 1848, ancient civilizations (Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman), Christian arts and Islam.