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The Louvre Museum is one of the most important and oldest in the world: Its art collections meet all ages and cultures around three hundred thousand pieces….
[The Louvre]

The Louvre Museum is the largest museum in Paris and the third in the world in area, with 160,000 square meters, of which just over 58,000 were devoted to exhibitions. Located on the 1st. District in the heart of Paris, is also one of the oldest museums in the world.

The origins of the Louvre Palace dating back to the Middle Ages.

King Philip Augustus, who reigned for 43 years, from 1180-1223, had endowed the city, then the most important and powerful on the continent, a large protective wall. 1190 saw the need to strengthen this wall with the building of a strong castle, the typical Medieval castle surrounded by trenches with a tower, the Grosse Tour du Louvre, to guard the gates of Paris danger threatened by Anglo-Norman.

The city continued to grow outside the walls and Charles V drove to 1356 the construction of a new, so the old fortress of Philip Augustus became obsolete. By 1364, the castle becomes the sumptuous royal residence of Charles V. After the death of Charles VI, the castle remained dormant until Francisco I decided to take up residence there. In 1528 the Grosse Tour was destroyed, leading medieval castle to a new Renaissance palace.

Since 1546, the hand of Pierre Lescot, began the transformation of the old fort into a luxurious royal residence, demolishing old buildings and building new wings, work continued under the reigns of Henry II and Henry IV. By 1564, Catherine de Medici, widow of Henry II, decided to build the Tuileries Palace, to the west. In 1566 starts the construction of a gallery to bring the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace, a project known as “Grand Dessein”. On the death of Henry IV remained unfinished works, his young successor, Louis XIII, will address the Louvre belatedly, in 1678, when Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles as a royal residence, stopped all work.

However, in 1692 Louis XIV ordered the installation of antique sculptures in the hall of the Caryatids. The palace was occupied by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and in 1699 organized the first of a series of exhibitions that attracted crowds. In 1756, Louis XV takes up the unfinished work of Louis XIV and the palace acquired the appearance we see today. In 1791 he decreed that the Louvre would be devoted to “the meeting of all the monuments of science and useful arts.” In 1793 he inaugurated the Musée du Louvre, which initially received public only on Sundays.
At the time of the Empire became known as Napoleon Museum. The accumulated works, taken from conquered places, made the largest museum in the world. In the fall of Napoleon in 1815, invaded nations regained their works and the museum was dismantled. Between 1806 and 1808 had been built opposite the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, decorated with reliefs and statues in honor of the victorious army of Napoleon. At the top ranked ancient bronze horses taken from the Piazza San Marco in Venice, also were returned in 1815.

The Arc du Carrousel

From then until mid-century, pro-recover and reorganize the museum, was creating and arranging new facilities: In 1826 he opened the Egyptian antiquities section, by the discoverer of the principles of hieroglyphic writing, Jean -François Champollion, was established in 1827 the Navy Museum and Gallery Luis Felipe Spanish between 1838 and 1848, Assyrian and museums, Mexican, Algerian and ethnological.

Napoleon III between 1857 and 1861 complete works to meet the Louvre to the Tuileries. In 1871, the last days of the Commune, the Tuileries Palace, symbol of the monarchy, was burned and also part of the Louvre Palace. Reconstructions had to be made, but the Tuileries never recovered and finally decided razed in 1882.

With the burning of the Tuileries was born a new era for the Louvre to be permanently leaves the residence of the political power to be committed to cultural activity.

Between 1939 and 1945, during World War was necessary to evacuate and close the museum and many works were transferred to different places, especially like Chambort castles. However, the museum reopened its doors in 1940 in the midst of Nazi occupation.

Since 1926, Henri Verne then director of National Museums, had launched a major restructuring plan for the Louvre, which lasted until after World War II. Under this project, the collections did nothing but increase and was necessary to transfer complete collections elsewhere, such as the Musée de la Marine Palais de Chaillot and the Asian collections at the Guimet Museum. The old playroom Tuileries Palace, the Jeu de Paume, became in 1947 an annex to the Louvre keeping collections of impressionist art. For lack of space, all that material was transferred in 1986 to the newly created Museum of Orsay.

In 1981, President François Mitterrand announced the project of “Grand Louvre”, which included a restructuring, absolutely necessary, the giant museum. This is called the famed architect IM Pei Ming, the mentor of the controversial glass pyramid that is now the main entrance of the Louvre, in the middle of the Cour Napoleon. The Great Pyramid, which opened on March 30, 1989, leading to the basement of the palace, a vast hall that leads to temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, the graves of the Louvre of Charles V and visitor services (cafe, changing rooms, library , restaurants, access to metro station).

Collections

The collections in the Louvre are vast and were grouped into eight departments:
- Oriental Antiquities: Collections of sculptures and the Near and Middle East, since the appearance of people 10,000 years ago until the arrival of Islam (Mesopotamia, Iran, Arabia, Anatolia, etc).
- Egyptian Antiquities: Brings together a collection that spans from Prehistoric times (4000 BC) to the Christian period (fourth century).
- Antiquities Greek, Etruscan and Roman: It brings together works from the Neolithic to the sixth century AD.
- Art of Islam: This department of the Louvre has a collection of thousands of objects of Islamic art, spanning 1300 years of history.
- Sculptures: collections of medieval sculptures, Renaissance and modern French, Italian and Northern European countries.
- Works of art: Samples of various objects such as tapestries, jewelry, ceramics, ivory, furniture and clocks. It ranges from the Middle Ages to the first half of the nineteenth century.
- Paints: includes representative works of all schools of European painting from the thirteenth century to 1848. The Italian section is the oldest in the Louvre, whose most famous work is perhaps the famous “Mona Lisa” by Da Vinci.
- Graphic Arts: Works on paper using different techniques. Because of its fragility in the light, only temporary exhibitions or on demand.

Source: www.mundocity.com/europa/paris/louvre.html
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