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Louvre: Paris Louvre
built 630 days ago
The Louvre itself is reason enough to visit Paris and spend a week. Objets d’Art, not only from Europe but the world over adorn the halls of what was once a simple fortress but became the stunning palace that it is today.
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A century and a half later, Paris had spread out way beyond the Louvre and the fortress was now surrounded by the city. With the Louvre no longer in a strategic position, under the impulse of Charles the Fifth, the medieval castle was slowly transformed into a royal palace. More than two decades were needed for the king to build new main buildings, raise the existing buildings and embellish them with sloping roofs topped with crenellations, turrets and with weather vanes ornamented with the coat of arms of France. Because danger still lurked, Charles the fifth had a new protective wall built. He continued to embellish the castle; decorating it richly, making it more spacious and comfortable, as well laying out magnificent gardens. The famous miniature of The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry offers the image of a castle straight out of a fairy tale.
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Portrait of Lucilla, 2nd half of 2nd century A.D., grey-veined marble, 78 3/4 x 37 3/8 x 28 5/16 in. (weight 3420 lbs), Musée du Louvre, Paris, (MA 1171 - INV. N 1482), © AFA / Musée du Louvre / Anne Chauvet, Courtesy of the American Federation of Arts
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Over seven million people visited the Louvre in 2005, surely one the most attended attractions worldwide. Covering an area of some 40 hectares right in the heart of Paris, the Louvre offers almost 60,000 square meters of exhibition rooms dedicated to preserving items representing 11 millennia of civilization and culture, bridging the very old and the very new.
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