The Louvre

 The Louvre, in the heart of Paris, is one of France's national icons, home to a world of famous art, and the country's national museum. It is located inside the Louvre Palace, which began as a fortress built in the 12th century under Philip II. Following Louis XIV's choice of the Versailles as his royal abode, the building became concerned entirely with housing the royal collection. From then on it was used by various institutions as a centre for paintings and sculpture, until the French Revolution - when the National Assembly decreed it should be used as a museum.

The museum opened in 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings, the majority of which being confiscated church and royal property. The cache steadily grew, until today when it contains over 380,000 pieces, 35,000 of which are artworks, from eight main categories - Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; and Prints and Drawings. The museum also has two satellite institutions, the Louvre Lens and its Abu Dhabi counterpart. The iconic glass pyramid structure which sits in front of the main buildings was completed in 1988, and was a precursor to the inversed pyramid, built in 1993.

The museum holds a vast number of masterpieces from a huge range of eras and civilizations. Some of the most fabled and recognisable include the Venus de Milo, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the Large Sphinx, the Code of Hammurabi, the Apollo of Piombino and Caravaggio's The Fortune Teller. The Louvre remains one of the world's best-loved museums, and has grown to become a symbol of the inexorable French attraction to art and culture.

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