Musee du Louvre

The Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre) is the largest art museum in the world. It was installed in the Louvre Palace in Paris, the capital of France. It is located on the banks of the Seine River, which flows through the city. There is a wide range of collections, ranging from prehistoric times to the 21st century. Approximately 35,000 historical works of art are exhibited in an area of ​​72,735 square meters. In 2017, it was chosen as the most visited art museum in the world with 8.1 million visitors. The building of the museum is very important not only with its content but also with the historical structure in which it is built; Between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century, the king of the time, II. It was built as a castle by Philippe, but as the building lost its defensive feature as the city developed rapidly and exceeded the castle borders, it was converted into a palace in 1546, by the order of François I, to be used as the official residence of the French kings. Today, traces of the ruins of the castle can still be seen in the basement of the museum. After undergoing many expansion works, it was finally built in 1682 by Louis XIV. With Louis' decision to move to the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre became a place that was not a museum but served the same function, where the royal collection, including important works from Greek and Roman civilizations, began to be exhibited. In this context, after being used for about 10 years, the literature and sculpture schools, established in the name of the royals in 1692, were moved here and continued education here for 100 years. The national assembly established during the French Revolution decided that the Louvre should be used as a museum where works of French art were exhibited, so it was turned into a museum again. The museum, which was opened on August 10, 1793, with a collection of 537 paintings, most of which belonged to the royal family and the church, experienced architectural difficulties because the building was not built for this purpose and remained closed between 1796 and 1801. The museum, which was enriched in terms of content during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, was also called Musée Napoléon (Napoleon Museum) for a while, but as a result of the withdrawal of the French army from the occupied areas, these works, which were unethically smuggled from abroad, were returned to their original owners. However, in the 18th century 20,000 new works were added to the collection of the museum, which continued to grow during the periods of Louis, Charles X and the Second French Empire. During the Third French Republic, the number of content increased through purchases and donations. Today, the entire art collection of the museum is divided into eight different headings and continues to be exhibited according to this order.