French LouvreLouvre Paris – both the palace and the museum located in it – is a majestic architectural ensemble of classical buildings.

These buildings occupy a fairly large area in central Paris.

Slender rows of carved arches, pilasters and pediments of the Louvre extend westward along the right bank of the river Seine from the island of Cité toward the magnificent Arc de Triomphe.

It is noteworthy that when François Mitterrand allowed a futuristic pyramid of reinforced concrete and glass to be built in the center of the Louvre courtyard in the late 1980s of the 20th century.

The president explained it as follows: The Louvre needs to be transformed from an old dinosaur into a modern, inspiring and accessible wonder of the world. Naturally, it is high time for such a venerable and monumental cultural institution as the Louvre Paris to remove the cobwebs of centuries from its walls.

It should be noted that, opening for visitors all new parts of the palace and expanding their expositions, the French authorities only continued a centuries-old tradition that began two centuries ago during the French Revolution, when the doors of the royal palace were open to citizens of the new republic.

Louvre

As a patron of architectural innovation, François Mitterrand followed the example of Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte, Catherine de Medici, Francis I, and other French rulers who repeatedly demolished, rebuilt, expanded the palace and thereby changed its visual appearance.

Even if you do not dare to go inside, just the appearance of this beautiful architectural ensemble will make a lasting impression on you.

At the moment the palace is almost entirely devoted to the Louvre Museum – one of the greatest museums of the world with an exclusive collection of European painting, sculpture and other fine arts from the Middle Ages to the dawn of Impressionism, and an unrivaled collection of antiquities from the Middle East, Egypt, Rome and Greece.

The French collection, grandiose in both importance and size, will help you truly understand the cultural traditions of this nation. Separate from the main museum, but in the same palace, there are three other marvelous museums run by the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs; these museums focus on textiles and fashion, as well as advertising and decorative arts.