Only one day has been reserved for the Louvre, a classic mistake for visitors to Paris. The location is too big to understand in one visit or in fact ten visits. It took eight centuries to grow vastly. This is explained in less than three minutes. Official video animated above. It was first built at the turn of the 13th century as a defensive fortress, and was converted into a royal family a century and a half later. In 1559 he acquired the first modern wing under King Henry II. His widow, Catherine des Medici, commissioned the Palace and Gardens of Tuilese, where Henri IV joined the Louvre, along with the Grande Gallery in 1610.
At the 17th Ten, Louis XVI completed the Louvre’s main courtyard, the Courseré, and broke away to Versailles. It was only during the French Revolution towards the end of that century that the Parliament declared it a museum.
The project to integrate it into the entire architecture continued under Napoleons I and III, the latter eventually completing it (and doubled its size in the process). The Palace of Tuileries was torched during the discomfort of the Parisian commune, but the remaining Louvres survived. Since then, its most notable change was the addition of Im Pei’s Glass Pyramid in 1989.
The Pyramids may still have an air of controversy in the last 30 years, but there is little denying it at least improving Course Carré’s year as a parking lot. In any case, that is because it is as persuasive as the collection of art it contains, as one of the myriad features that make the Louvre an architectural palimphet of French history. (French-speaking countries can learn more from long-form documentaries by submitters Des Racines et des ailes and Notre Histoire. ) And how did I approach the most famous approach of all of this French institutions on my own first trip to Paris? By not going at all. However, on my next trip to Paris, I will not go anywhere else.
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Based in Seoul Colin marshall Write and broadcasting stationTS about cities, languages, and culture. His projects include the Substack Newsletter Books about cities And the book The Stateless City: Walking through 21st century Los Angeles. Follow him on social networks previously known as Twitter @colinmarshall.
