The Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum) located in Paris, France is one of the biggest, most famous and important museums in the world.

Once upon a time (1190) the Louvre was a fortress built to defend Paris against the Vikings. In the 14th century the King Charles V turned it into a palace of the arts. The existing part of the Châteaux du Louvre begun in 1535 and later the King Henry IV added the big ‘Grande Galerie’ along the River Seine, where many artists lived and worked. In 1560 Catherine Medici started the ‘Denon Wing’. Later, Louis XIII would complete this wing and would also build ‘The Richelieu Wing’. The beautiful ‘Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel’ (Triumph Arch with carousel) was built by Napoleon I in 1805 to commemorate his victories.

The Louvre Museum in Paris has some of the most famous masterpieces in the world as ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci and the sculpture ‘Venus de Milo' by Alexandros of Antioch. The Mona Lisa is kept behind protective glass in the Salle des Etats, in a climate-controlled environment. There are also amazing works of art by Rembrandt, Rubens, Fragonard, Titian, Poussin and many others. In 1935 the Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934) gave the museum a fantastic collection of 3000 drawings, illustrated books and more than 40,000 engravings.

In this amazing museum and art gallery you can admire paintings as well as sculptures and architectural masterpieces. There are also important history, archeology and furniture exhibitions.

In 2009 an extension of the museum will be built in the city Lens, Pas-de-Calais. It will be called ‘Le Louvre-Lens’ and it will have a space of approximately 5000 m2. The building will be made mainly of glass and it will be located in the heart of a beautiful garden. It will receive about 500,000 visitors per year.