For the museum, see Louvre. For other uses, see Louvre (disambiguation).
Louvre Palace
Palais du Louvre
West wing of the Louvre's Cour Carrée with the Pavillon de l'Horloge
General information
Type
Royal residence
Architectural style
Gothic (remains preserved underground), French Renaissance, Louis XIII style, French Baroque, Neoclassical, Neo-Baroque and Napoleon III style, and Modernism (Pyramid)
Location
Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France
Current tenants
Louvre, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, École du Louvre, C2RMF
Construction started
1190 together with the Wall of Philip II Augustus
Design and construction
Architect(s)
Numerous; include Pierre Lescot, Louis Métezeau, Jacques Lemercier, Louis Le Vau, Claude Perrault, Percier and Fontaine, Louis Visconti, Hector Lefuel, I. M. Pei
North wing of Louvre facing main courtyard
The Louvre Palace (French: Palais du Louvre, [palɛdyluvʁ]), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. Originally a defensive castle, it has served numerous government-related functions in the past, including intermittently as a royal residence between the 14th and 18th centuries. It is now mostly used by the Louvre Museum, which first opened there in 1793.
Whereas the area had been inhabited for thousands of years,[1] the Louvre's history starts around 1190 with its first construction as the Louvre Castle defending the western front of the Wall of Philip II Augustus, the then new city-wall of Paris. The Louvre's oldest section still standing above ground, its Lescot Wing, dates from the late 1540s, when Francis I started the replacement of the medieval castle with a new design inspired by classical antiquity and Italian Renaissance architecture. Most parts of the current building were constructed in the 17th and 19th centuries.[2][3]
For more than three centuries, the history of the Louvre was closely intertwined with that of the Tuileries Palace, created to the west of the Louvre by Catherine de' Medici in 1564, with its main block finally demolished in 1883. The Tuileries was the main seat of French executive power during the last third of that period, from the return of Louis XVI and his court from Versailles in October 1789 until the palace was set on fire during the Paris Commune of 1871. The Pavillon de Flore and Pavillon de Marsan, which used to respectively mark the southern and northern ends of the Tuileries, are now considered part of the Louvre Palace. The Carrousel Garden, first created in the late 19th century in what used to be the great courtyard of the Tuileries (or Cour du Carrousel), is now considered part of the Tuileries Garden. A less high-profile but historically significant dependency of the Louvre was to its immediate east, the Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon, appropriated by the monarchy following the betrayal of the Constable of Bourbon in 1523 and mostly demolished in October 1660 to give way to the Louvre's expansion.[4]: 37 The last remains of the Petit-Bourbon were cleared in the 1760s.
^Cite error: The named reference Babelon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Henri Verne (1923). Le Palais du Louvre: Comment l'ont terminé Louis XIV, Napoléon Ier et Napoléon III. Paris: Editions Albert Morancé.
^Louis Hautecoeur, Louis (1928). Histoire du Louvre: Le Château – Le Palais – Le Musée, des origines à nos jours, 1200–1928. Paris: L'Illustration.
^Cite error: The named reference JCD was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
The LouvrePalace (French: Palais du Louvre, [palɛ dy luvʁ]), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank...
times to form the present LouvrePalace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to...
craftsmen who made "tuiles", or roof tiles. Because of its proximity to the LouvrePalace, members of the royal family began buying plots of land there. After...
make way for the expanded LouvrePalace. The medieval complex was generally referred to simply as the Louvre (French: le Louvre), as its modern successor...
Napoléon) of the LouvrePalace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyramids. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum, allowing...
The Louvre Colonnade is the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre in Paris. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French Architectural...
subsequent expansion is the LouvrePalace. As a royal residence, it was much smaller than the current Louvre Museum. The LouvrePalace was abandoned as a royal...
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The Louvre Inverted Pyramid (French: Pyramide inversée du Louvre) is a skylight constructed in the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall in...
Louis XIV's move to Versailles in the 1660s, the LouvrePalace ceased to be mainly used as a royal palace and became inhabited by artists, civil servants...
king's bedroom in the LouvrePalace, by Francisque Scibecq de Carpi, 1556 Baroque ceiling of the Salle des Saisons in the LouvrePalace, by Giovanni Francesco...
the heart of the city, it includes on one side the north wing of the LouvrePalace and the Tuileries Gardens. The Rue de Rivoli is an example of a transitional...
then located inside the LouvrePalace in Paris, to minimize this decline and stabilize it around the prevailing levels. The Louvre Accord may have helped...
City, The Palace of Versailles, The Royal Palace of Caserta, The Winter Palace, The LouvrePalace, Prague Castle, The Grand Palace and The Palace of the...
collections.louvre.fr. April 0150. Retrieved 5 January 2024. Bresc-Bautier, Geneviève (2008). The Louvre, a Tale of a Palace. Musée du Louvre Éditions....
Lions Gate of the LouvrePalace by Hector Lefuel is a Louis-Napoléon version of French Renaissance architecture; few visitors to the Louvre realize it is...
Longhena. Examples in France included the Pavillon de l’Horloge of the LouvrePalace by Jacques Lemercier (1624–1645), the Chapel of the Sorbonne by Jacques...
Bagatelle Château de Bagnolet, Paris Château de Bercy Conciergerie LouvrePalace Luxembourg Palace Château de la Muette Palais de la cité Palais-Royal Hôtels...
d'Apollon, LouvrePalace, Paris, by Louis Le Vau and Charles Le Brun, after 1661 Baroque pair of cornucopias on the garden façade of the Palace of Versailles...
ceiling of room 644 of the LouvrePalace, unknown painter, c.1840 Neoclassical festoon on the ceiling of room 643 of the LouvrePalace, unknown painter, c.1840...
Carrousel du Louvre is an underground shopping mall in Paris, France, managed by Unibail-Rodamco. The name refers to two nearby sites, the Louvre museum and...
2017), Disneyland Paris (11), Sacre Cœur (10), the Versailles Palace (7.7), the Louvre Museum (6.9), the Eiffel Tower (5.9), Centre Pompidou (3.33), and...
of Henry IV, as the corner pavilion between the Tuileries Palace to the north and the Louvre's Grande Galerie to the east. The pavilion was entirely redesigned...
Global Information
