The Orsay Museum in Paris train station and old luxury hotel, the Orsay Museum is now one of the most visited museums in France.

Almost opposite the Louvre, across the Seine, a structure 188 meters long and 75 meters wide and 32 meters high is imposed by the dock: the Museo d’Orsay. One of the museums ‘new’ and yet France is the third most visited, with over 2,500,000 visitors per year. Its particular feature is that it was installed in the old train station in the city.

Back in 1600, the area was a large garden belonging to Queen Margaret of Valois, wife of Henry IV repudiated. When she died, the space was sold by lot and the aristocracy built mansions, giving the area an air of elegance and prestige. Thus, reaching the nineteenth century, the site of the existing museum was occupied by the Cavalry Barracks and the Palais d’Orsay.In the days of the Commune, the entire neighborhood was burned and charred walls of the Palais d’Orsay remained so until 1900, just before the Expo, the state gave the land to the Orleans railroad company. It plans to build the place a new train station in a more central the Austerlitz station, then the most important.

The address selected for the project were Lucien Magne, Emile Bénard and Victor Laloux (the latter responsible for the restoration of the City of Paris). The challenge was great: it was to integrate a cold iron structure in a nice neighborhood and near the Louvre and other buildings. Two years was the construction and July 14, 1900 were inaugurated the station and the elegant Orsay.

Until 1939 worked the station, which by then was too small and impractical.
The abandoned building was the scene of several films, including The Trial, Orson Wells, and was a refuge for the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company. In 1973 he stopped working also the hotel d’Orsay.
The Directorate of Museums of France was looking for a place to stay then the art collections of the second half of the nineteenth century and the building of the old station, about to be demolished and replaced by a modern hotel, attracted attention and was historical monument in 1978, while President Valery Giscard d’Estaing authorized the creation of the new museum. His successor, François Mitterrand, who was on 1 December 1986 opened the Museum of Orsay.

[Musée d'Orsay] Adaptation of the season was a huge challenge both technically and aesthetically. Organized in 3 levels and respecting the original architecture of Laloux, the Orsay Museum has about 80 rooms or galleries with some 4000 exhibits permanently, temporary exhibitions, auditorium, auditorium, cafes and restaurants.

The collections at the Museum of Orsay covering the period 1848 to 1914 and were moved from the Louvre (works by artists born after 1820), the Jeu de Paume Museum (devoted to Impressionism since 1947) and the Museum of Modern Art that having been installed at the Centre Pompidou only preserved the works of authors born after 1870. The museum collections include not only paintings and drawings (about 15000 count!) But extend to other disciplines such as photography that emerged in this period and also meets architectural projects 14000, 2400 sculptures, furniture and 1300 art … Constantly heritage is enriched by acquisitions and donations.

Among the most outstanding authors and works can be admired at the Museum of Orsay can quote Ingres (The Source), Degas (Dancer dressed), Millet (Angelus, Spring), Camille Corot (A matinee. The dance of the nymphs. ), Courbet (The origin of the world, The Artist’s Studio), Monet (The picnic), Renoir (The Moulin de la Galette), Cezanne (Women of the brewer, Portrait of the Artist’s Mother), Gauguin ( Self-Portrait with Yellow Christ), Van Gogh (The Arles, The Church at Auvers) and Manet (Olympia).