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Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum (or 'Musée du Louvre' in French), is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, on the Right Bank of the Seine. This central landmark of French culture is both a historic monument (initially a royal fortress), and a national museum. More than 35,000 works of art are exhibited here, dating back from the 6th millennium BC to the 19th century AD.
The Louvre Museum is housed in the 'Palais du Louvre' or Louvre Palace which served as a fortress under Philip II (12th century). Over the centuries, the building was extended many times to form what has now become the Palais du Louvre. During the 17th Century, Louis XIV preferred the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre Palace as a place to store and display the royal art collections. The National Assembly during the years of the French Revolution finally decided to use the Louvre as a museum, the place to display the most valuable art collections of the Nation.
The Louvre Museum first opened in August 1793 with an exhibition of several hundreds of paintings. Over the years, the number of art works considerably increased, especially under Napoleon's reign. During the Second Empire and the Third Republic, and with the notable exception of World War I and World War II, the museum's collections grew significantly, often through gifts and donations. As of today, the collection is divided into eight departments: Sculpture, Decorative Arts, Paintings, Prints and Drawings, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities, Near Eastern Antiquities and Islamic Art.
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