The Louvre Palace: history and photos

The Louvre Palace (France) is a museum and architectural complex in the center of Paris, formed over many centuries. Originally there was a massive fortress, later rebuilt into an elegant royal residence. Today it is the greatest museum in the world with a rich collection of works of art.

Description

The largest historical mansion in Europe, converted into a museum, is located on the right bank of the Seine. Over 800 years the complex was rebuilt many times. In the architectural plan, the Louvre absorbed elements of Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism and eclectic styles. Separate buildings, attached to each other, as a whole form a powerful structure, erected according to the plan of the elongated rectangle. Certainly, one of the most important sights of Paris is the Louvre Palace.

The plan of the complex includes:

• The main building, consisting of three parts connected by galleries;
• The underground exposition, the visible part of which is a glass pyramid in the courtyard of Napoleon;
• The triumphal arch of Carusel and the Tuileries garden.

In the complex of buildings with a total area of 60,600 m ^{2 there} is a museum with more than 35,000 works of art. The world heritage is represented by paintings, sculptures, ornaments, objects of everyday life, elements of architecture, covering the period from ancient times to the middle of the nineteenth century. Among the most valuable exhibits are the stele with the Hammurabi code, the sculpture of Nicky of Samothrace, the painting "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci and other masterpieces.

Early Middle Ages

The Louvre palace, whose history dates back to the XII century, initially performed purely defensive functions. During the reign of Philippe-Augustus II outside Paris a thirty-meter defensive tower was built, the dungeon. Around it were built 10 smaller towers, connected by a wall.

In those turbulent times, the main danger came from the northwest: at any time, the Vikings or pretenders to the French throne of the genus Plantagenets and Capetings could attack. In addition, in alliance with the King of England was the duchy of Normandy, located in the neighborhood.

The fortress served as a sentinel and defensive function. Some parts of the tower can be seen in the basement. They refer to the exposition devoted to the history of the Louvre and are declared an archaeological reserve. It is possible that the king built a stronghold on the foundation of an earlier defensive system. By the way, the word "Louvre" in the language of the francs means "watchtower".

Later Middle Ages

In the second half of the fourteenth century, the Louvre Palace underwent dramatic changes. By that time, Paris had expanded considerably. New city walls were erected, and the old citadel was inside the city limits. The strategic importance of the defensive structure was leveled. Charles V Wise rebuilt the fortress in a representative castle and moved his headquarters here.

Donjon was radically rebuilt. The internal layout was adapted for residential needs, a roof with pinnacles appeared. Around the quadrangular courtyard built residential and outbuildings of the same height. Above the main gate towered two small elegant turrets, which gave the building a certain elegance.

The lower part of the walls is partially preserved to the present day. The remains of the buildings occupy a quarter of the eastern wing of the present Louvre. In particular - a quadrangle around a square courtyard.

Renaissance

In the sixteenth century, Francis I decided to rebuild the Louvre palace. The architect Pierre Lesco proposed to reconstruct the castle in the style of the French Renaissance. The work began in 1546 and continued under Henry II.

The new building was originally supposed to have a rectangular shape with a large courtyard (Kur Cour), but eventually the shape was changed to a square one. During Pierre Lescaut's lifetime, only a part of the western wing was built on the south side. These are the oldest fully preserved buildings of the present Louvre.

The architect widely used classical forms in architecture, combining them with the French traditional school (high roofs with attics). The building is characterized by a harmonious articulation of the facade with three zones of rips in the form of rectangular windows, crowned with triangular pediments separated by pilasters and arcades on the first floor. The façade was supplemented with a large number of sculptural compositions. The Louvre Palace inside was an equally impressive sight. Lesko together with the sculptor Jean Guzhon built the Great Hall with the statue of Artemis.

Expansion of the castle

During the reign of Catherine de Medici, the palace of the Tuileries was built nearby and the concept of an extension of the existing buildings of the Louvre was developed. The project was implemented by Henry IV.

First, the Louvre Palace was cleared of the remains of the old castle and widened the courtyard. Then the architects Louis Metecho and Jacques Androix completed the construction of the Petite Gallery and began work on the Grand Gallerie, which connected the Louvre and the Tuileries.

Already at this stage the complex becomes the focus of science and culture. There was a printing house, a mint. And later, in one of the buildings, sculptors, artists, jewelers, watchmakers, gunsmiths, carvers, weavers were allowed to settle and work.

XVII century

The Louvre Palace continued to expand in the seventeenth century. Louis XIII took up the baton of his ancestors. When he Jacques Lemercier in 1624 began construction of the pavilion of the Clock, and to the north a building was erected - a copy of the gallery of Pierre Lescot.

Louis XIV, who had a weakness for grandiose projects, ordered the demolition of old buildings and completion of the premises around the courtyard. All of them were in the same style. But the most ambitious task was the erection of the Eastern Colonnade.

Since this part of the palace is facing the city, it was decided to make it especially spectacular. The best European architects of the time were invited. The most daring project was presented by the Italian Giovanni Bernini. He offered to demolish the palace and erect a new one. Considering how hard and persevering the complex was built by previous kings, the idea was rejected. Claude Perrault (elder brother of the storyteller Charles Perrault) developed a compromise version, from which they began to build on.

The face of Paris

The eastern colonnade transformed the Louvre Palace. Experts describe the 173-meter building as follows: it is the highest embodiment of the ideas of French classicism. Claude Perrault refused to dominate at that time a massive Roman architecture, the elements of which were half-columns and pilasters. In place of the airy open columns in Corinthian style, propped up a flat roof (which was also an innovation).

Surprisingly, K. Perrault (actually self-taught) was able to give the building grandeur without pretentious sculptures and "decorations", so popular in the XVII century. His ideas of a giant slender order towering above the massive first floor were picked up by architects throughout Europe. Similar types of buildings are also found in St. Petersburg. The idea to place the columns in pairs between the windows, on the one hand, allowed to maintain the airiness of the colonnade, on the other - to increase the amount of light entering the halls.

VXIII-XX century

During this period, the Louvre Palace is losing its status as a royal residence. In 1682, King Louis and his entourage moved to Versailles. Many of the halls remained unfinished. Under Napoleon Bonaparte construction continued. According to the project Visconti completed the northern wing. New galleries were erected - Fontaine and Percier.

In the XX century (1985-1989), the famous architect M. Pei proposed a bold and elegant project of the underground museum exposition. At the same time, an additional entrance to the Louvre was carried out through a glass pyramid, which is also a dome of the underground hall.

Formation of collections

The unique collections of the Louvre began to form since the time of King Francis I, who admired Italian art. He gathered in his country residence Fontainebleau works of the Renaissance, which later moved to Paris.

In the collection of Francis I were paintings by Raphael, Michelangelo, a collection of jewelry. In addition, the monarch invited the best Italian architects, painters, jewelers, sculptors from the Apennines. The most famous of his guests was Leonardo da Vinci, a legacy from which the Louvre got the painting "Gioconda".

During the reign of the monarch Henry IV, the Louvre Palace in Paris became the artistic center of France. Dozens of famous masters worked in the Grand Gallery, whose creations became the basis of the future museum. Louis XIV also loved everything beautiful. In his royal office there were fifteen hundred paintings, French, Flemish, Italian, Dutch artists.

The Great French Revolution contributed to the development of the museum and its transformation into a public institution. Collections of kings, aristocrats, churches were nationalized and filled the museum. Napoleonic campaigns became the next source of replenishment of expositions. After the defeat of Bonaparte, more than 5,000 captured works were returned to the former owners, but many remained in the Louvre.

Becoming a museum

The Constituent Assembly on 26.07.1991 ordered to collect in the Louvre Palace "monuments of arts and sciences". For the public, the museum was opened on 11/18/1973.

In the XX century, the Louvre Palace, whose photo amazes with magnificence, underwent a change. An underground gallery with a glass pyramid was built anew, and the museum's collections were divided. Here there are only works created before 1848. Later paintings of the Impressionists moved to the Museum of Orsay and Impressionism. Those exhibits that were created after 1914, are in the National Center. Georges Pompidou.