The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre) is
the most visited (8.3 million visitors in 2006)
and one of the oldest, largest, and most famous
art galleries and museums in the world. The
building was previously a royal palace and holds
some of the world's most famous works of art,
such as Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', 'The
Virgin and Child with St. Anne', 'Madonna of the
Rocks', Jacques Louis David's 'Oath of the
Horatii', Delacroix's 'Liberty Leading the
People' and Alexandros of Antioch's 'Venus de
Milo'. The following information has been
obtained from 'Wikipaedia', the official Louvre
website and various other sources,
The first royal "Castle of the Louvre" was
founded in what was then the western edge of
Paris by Philip Augustus in 1190, as a fortified
royal palace to defend Paris on its west against
Viking attacks. The first building in the
existing Louvre was begun in 1535, after
demolition of the old Castle. The architect
Pierre Lescot introduced to Paris the 'new design
vocabulary' of the Renaissance which had been
developed in the châteaux of the
Loire.
During his reign (1589–1610), King Henry
IV added the Grande Galerie. Henry IV, a promoter
of the arts, invited hundreds of artists and
craftsmen to live and work on the building's
lower floors. This huge addition was built along
the bank of the River Seine and at the time was
the longest edifice of its kind in the
world.
Louis XIII (1610–1643) completed the Denon
Wing, which had been started by Catherine Medici
in 1560. Today it has been renovated as a part of
the Grand Louvre Renovation Programme.
The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII.
It was part of the Ministry of Economy of France,
which took up most of the north wing of the
palace. The Ministry was moved and the wing was
renovated and turned into magnificent galleries
which were inaugurated in 1993 which saw the
200th anniversary of sections of the building
being opened for the first time to the public as
a museum on November 8, 1793. The Louvre was
still being added to in the time of Napoleon III.
The new wing of 1852–1857, by architects
Visconti and Hector Lefuel, represents the Second
Empire's version of Neo-baroque, full of detail
and laden with sculpture. Work on the wing
continued until 1876.
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