The Louvre is one of the most important museums and the oldest in the world: Their collections gather art from all cultures and times in about three hundred thousand pieces ….

The Louvre is the largest museum in Paris and the third world in terms of area, with 160,000 square meters, of which more than 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 back to the Middle Ages.

King Philip Augustus, who reigned for 43 years, from 1180 to 1223, had given the city, then the most important and powerful on the continent, a large protective wall. By 1190 he saw the need to strengthen this wall with the building of a strong castle, the typical medival castle surrounded by trenches with a tower, the Grosse Tour du Louvre, to guard the gates of Paris threatened by the Anglo-Norman danger.The city continued to grow outside of the wall and pushed to 1356 Carlos V building a new one, which the ancient fortress of Philippe Auguste 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 I decide Francisco to take up residence there. In 1528 the Grosse Tour was destroyed, leading the 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, construction began on a gallery to bring the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace, a project known as “Grand Dessein”. On the death of Henry IV works remained unfinished, his young successor, Louis XIII, will address the Louvre belatedly, in 1678, when Louis XIV chose Versailles as a royal residence, stopped the work.

However, in 1692 Louis XIV ordered the installation of antique sculptures in the hall of the Maidens. 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, the palace took on the appearance we see today. In 1791 he decreed that the Louvre would be dedicated to “meeting all the sights of the sciences and the arts.” In 1793 he inaugurated the Louvre Museum, which initially received public only on Sundays.

In the Empire became known as Napoleon Museum. The accumulated works, taken from the conquered places, made the museum the largest 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 Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, decorated with bas-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, were creating and arranging new theaters: In 1826, he opened the Egyptian antiquities section, by the discoverer of the principles of hieroglyphic writing, Jean -François Champollion, was created 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 that fulfill 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. Reconstructions had to be made, but the Tuileries will never recover and eventually decided to raze in 1882.

With the burning of the Tuileries was born a new era for the Louvre; definitely be leaving home to pursue political power almost exclusively to cultural activity.
Between 1939 and 1945, during the World War, it was necessary to evacuate and close the museum and many works were transferred to different places, especially as the Chambort castles. However, the museum reopened in 1940 in full Nazi occupation.

From 1926, Henri Verne, then director of National Museums, had launched a major restructuring plan for the Louvre, which lasted until after World War II. In this project the collections did nothing but increase and was necessary to transfer complete collections elsewhere, such as the Navy Museum at Chaillot Palace and the Museum Guimet Asian collections. The old game room of the palace of Tuileries, 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 Musee d’Orsay.

In 1981, President François Mitterrand announced the project “Grand Louvre”, which included a restructuring absolutely necessary, the giant museum. This was called the architect Ieoh Ming Pei, the mentor of the controversial glass pyramid that is now the main entrance to 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 which gives access to temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, the mass of the Louvre of Charles V and visitor services (cafeteria, locker rooms, library , restaurants, access to metro station).

Collections
The collections at the Louvre are vast and were grouped into eight departments:
- Oriental Antiquities, collections of sculptures and objects from the Near and Middle East, from the appearance of people 10,000 years ago until the arrival of Islam (Mesopotamia, Iran, Arabia, Anatolia, etc).
- Egyptian Antiquities: Group a collection ranging from prehistoric times (4000 BC) to the Christian period (fourth century).
- Antiquities Greek, Etruscan and Roman, brings together works from the Neolithic to the sixth century AD.
- Art of Islam: This department of the Louvre presents a collection of thousands of objects of Islamic art, spanning 1300 years of history.
- Sculpture: Collection 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 works representative of all European schools of 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.