The Louvre Palace was not built in a day!
While everyone today recognises the Louvre Palace as one of the most prestigious and elegant palaces in the world, few people know that it began as an austere fortress, part of the rampart erected by King Philip Augustus at the end of the 12th century.
The king built this rampart before he departed for the Third Crusade, not only to protect the capital of his kingdom of France, but also to push the city limits westward.
Therefore, to fully grasp the essence of the Louvre Palace, we must understand that its evolution occurred through numerous demolitions, reconstructions, expansions, and transformations spanning three centuries!
Louvre Palace’s layout
Let’s begin by imagining a colossal quadrilateral structure.
To the east lies the Cour Carrée, adorned with Perrault’s colonnade on its exterior facade.
The Louvre Palace is situated on the four sides of the Cour Carrée, but the majority of the buildings extend along its western side and towards the Tuileries Garden.
The Galerie du Bord de l’Eau, also known as the Grande Galerie, runs along the Seine and ends with the elegant Pavillon de Flore. The north wing of the palace borders the Rue de Rivoli and terminates with the Pavillon de Marsan. These two pavilions were once connected by the Tuileries Palace, which burned down during the Paris Commune in 1871 and was demolished in the following years.
Each of these two wings is composed of two parallel buildings connected by perpendicular buildings, forming three inner courtyards. Each end building is marked by a pavilion topped with a dome.
The Cour Napoléon, the westernmost main courtyard located between the south and north wings, opens onto the Place du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the former main gate of the Tuileries Palace. This arch today separates the Louvre from the Tuileries Garden.
This is where you will find the Louvre Pyramid (Pei’s Pyramid), the iconic and controversial main entrance to the Louvre Museum, in the centre of the Cour Napoléon.
Medieval Louvre Fortress (12th-13th centuries)
Let’s now travel back to the end of the 12th century.
The fortress was built in a district called Louvrea. According to one version, the name would derive from the Latin “Lupus,” meaning wolf, and would refer to a bygone era when wolves roamed the area. However, it is more likely that it derives from “Leovar,” meaning a fortified camp in Old Saxon. Indeed, the Vikings established their camps in front of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois Church, located east of the palace, when they besieged Paris in 885.
In the 1180s, Philip-Augustus had a rampart built before departing for the Third Crusade. The Louvre fortress (Vieux Louvre) was an extension of this rampart, strategically positioned to control the Seine and the western perimeter of Paris. A sturdy metal chain spanned the river, linking the defensive towers of the Tour du Coin and the Tour de Nesles. The Tour du Coin stood on the Quai du Pont des Arts, at the embankment of the Pont des Arts, while the Tour de Nesles occupied the site of the present-day Institut de France on the Rive Gauche – Left Bank.
The imposing Grosse Tour, which housed the royal treasury, archives, and the arsenal, was located in the centre of the fortress.
In the 13th century, Louis IX (Saint-Louis), grandson of Philip-Augustus, enlarged the fortress by adding a chapel and a hall in the west wing. However, despite its defensive role, the Old Louvre was relatively modest in size, occupying only a quarter of the current Cour Carrée. Modern excavations have indeed indeed unearthed its foundations of the fortress and remains of the Grosse Tour beneath the courtyard.
Charles V’s Library (14th century)
By the mid-14th century, new villages had sprung up beyond the Philip-Augustus Wall. King Charles V thus commissioned the construction of a new rampart, to enclose them.
This new rampart, built between 1356 and 1383, encompassed the Louvre fortress, rendering its defensive role obsolete. Thus, from the 1360s onward, Charles V transformed the Vieux Louvre into a sumptuous country residence, embellishing it with architectural features such as turrets and terraces.
He also established the first royal library in the Grosse Tour to house his extensive collection of books and manuscripts.
However, Charles V primarily resided at his Hôtel Saint-Pol, which he had built near the Bastille Fortress, at the eastern end of the rampart.
His successors followed his example for about 150 years, preferring to stay in their Loire Valley castles rather than at the Louvre.
Renaissance Louvre Palace (16th century)
Everything changed in 1527 when King Francis I, a great patron of the French Renaissance, decided to establish his residence in the Louvre!
Under his patronage, the architect Pierre Lescot undertook a vast renovation, including the demolition of the Grosse Tour in 1546. Lescot also laid out lush gardens in place of the old ramparts and moats (current Quai du Louvre) and created the Place du Carrousel for tournaments and jousts.
Francis I considerably enriched the book collection assembled by Charles V with new books, objets d’art, sculptures, and paintings.
Among the remarkable features of this period is the Salle des Cariatides (Hall of Caryatids), located in the Aile Sully (Wing), which remains the oldest room preserved in the Louvre.
Named after the four colossal statues sculpted by Jean Goujon that support the upper gallery, this room is a superb example of Renaissance architecture.
Surprisingly, the remains of the apse of the chapel built by Saint Louis in the 13th century are still visible in the walls.
Francis I had the main entrance to the palace moved to the west side. This seemingly minor alteration later played a decisive role in the development of the Champs-Elysées in later years.
Lescot oversaw the construction of the Renaissance-style west wing after the king died in 1547.
The south and west wings were built during the reigns of Henry II, Charles IX, and Henry III, and feature Gothic and Renaissance façades, reflecting the evolution of French architecture.
After Henry II‘s death, his widow, Catherine de Medici, entrusted the construction of the Tuileries Palace to Philibert de l’Orme. The architect envisioned, in particular, the creation of the Galerie du Bord de l’Eau (Water Gallery) along the Seine, intended to harmoniously connect the two palaces. However, construction was abruptly halted upon his death in 1572, leaving the project unfinished.
King Henry IV resumed work in 1594 and commissioned Jacques Androuet-du-Cerceau to continue the construction of the Water Gallery. The renowned architect enlarged and raised the gallery by adding a floor. He also added the Pavillon de Flore and oversaw the completion of the decorative features of the Tuileries Palace.
Henry IV transformed part of this gallery into apartments, workshops, and studios, where he invited the greatest artists of his time. For more than two centuries, the Louvre thus became the City of Arts.
Unfortunately, work stopped abruptly when he was assassinated in 1610. The upkeep of the palace was then neglected until the reign of Louis XIII.
Cour Carrée (17th century)
Louis XIII quadrupled the size of the Louvre Palace. In 1624, the king indeed entrusted Jacques Lemercier with the construction of the Pavillon de l’Horloge (Clock Pavilion) in the Cour Carrée (Square Courtyard).
The architect erected a wing symmetrical to Lescot’s Renaissance-style wing, demolishing the northern section of the Old Louvre in the process.
Louis XIV succeeded his father in 1643 and oversaw further expansion work. Under his patronage, Le Vau undertook the demolition of the Old Louvre, except Lescot’s wing, and enlarged the south wing. He also built the east and north wings to complete Lescot’s initial design, thus enclosing the Cour Carrée between four wings.
The architects Perrault, Le Vau, and Le Brun collaborated on the creation of Perrault’s magnificent colonnade, which adorns the eastern exterior facade of the Cour Carrée.
The Place du Carrousel was transformed into a large parade ground and remained a venue for jousting tournaments.
Louis XIV chose to reside at the Tuileries Palace, where he had a 5,000-seat theatre built for his entertainments. He also had the Pavillon de Marsan erected in the northwest corner of the Louvre, echoing the Pavillon de Flore on the banks of the Seine, thus linking the two pavilions to the Tuileries Palace.
However, work slowed after 1671, and the colonnade and surrounding buildings of the Cour Carrée remained unfinished when Louis XIV moved his court to his newly built Palace of Versailles in 1678. Nevertheless, during his twenty years of residence at the Louvre, the Sun King significantly enriched the palace’s art collections.
Louvre Palace before the French Revolution
Louis XV lived at the Tuileries Palace until 1722, then moved to the Palace of Versailles.
From 1725 to 1789, the Louvre Palace once again became a haven for artists, hosting various personalities and organisations, including the prestigious Comédie Française from 1770 to 1782. However, proliferation of makeshift dwellings, shops, and cabarets, and lack of maintenance considerably degraded the Louvre Palace, which by the end of the 18th century had turned into a vast shantytown.
The situation became so critical that Louis XVI even considered demolishing it. But the outbreak of the French Revolution, although tragic for him and his family, prevented this.
The Louvre Palace was declared national property but saved from destruction. In 1793, it was indeed transformed into a museum, thus laying the foundations for its future as one of the world’s most renowned cultural institutions.
Completion of the palace-museum
The construction of the Louvre Palace was completed at the end of the 19th century.
Napoleon I commissioned the restoration and expansion of the palace, transforming it into the largest museum in the world. Under his patronage, Fontaine thus completed the Cour Carrée and the Perrault Colonnade, adding a floor to the north and south wings to harmonise their architecture with the west wing.
He also adorned the facades with finely crafted low-reliefs; he oversaw the creation of the Rue de Rivoli and the construction of the north wing, as well as the transformation of the Arc du Carrousel into a monument commemorating Napoleon’s victories in 1805. Finally, Fontaine also commissioned the Rohan Pavilion during the Restoration.
In the 1850s, Napoleon III called upon the architects Visconti and Lefuel to complete the palace. Two magnificent wings were built parallel to the gallery along the quays, in the Cour Napoléon, as well as the north wing on the Rue de Rivoli.
These new wings were connected to the gallery by three perpendicular buildings, creating small inner courtyards. The Cour Marly, today topped with a glass dome, houses the original Marly Horses sculptures, which once framed the entrance to the Champs-Élysées at the Place de la Concorde.
Unfortunately, the Pavillon Flore, the Pavillon Marsan, and the Tuileries Palace were destroyed during the Paris Commune in 1871. Lefuel rebuilt the two pavilions, but the ruins of the Tuileries Palace were eventually demolished.
Thus, after three centuries of work, the construction of the Louvre Palace was completed!
A simple and useful way to remember the different phases of construction is to remember the initials of the sovereigns who commissioned each section, “N” for Napoleon and “H” for Henry IV.
Louvre Palace in the 20th century
In 1964, André Malraux, Minister of Culture, launched major restoration work, which included deepening the moats along the Perrault Colonnade to restore them to their original depth of 7 metres.
A vast rehabilitation project, dubbed “Le Grand Louvre“, was launched in 1981, when the Ministry of Finance relocated from the Richelieu Wing to the new building in Bercy.
In 1984, the late President François Mitterrand commissioned the renowned architect I.M. Pei to design and build the iconic Pyramid, a symbol of modernity contrasting with the Louvre’s historic architecture. Completed in 1989, the Pyramid became a prominent feature of the Louvre.
Continuing its tradition of expansion and enrichment, the museum inaugurated the Visconti Wing along the banks of the Seine in 2012. This section, entirely devoted to Islamic art, is the latest addition to the Louvre’s prestigious collection.
Directions: 1st district
Metro: Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre on Lines 1, 7
Coordinates: Lat 48.860997 – Long 2.336038
