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offers visitors to discover western art from the Middle Ages to 1848, as well as a host of ancient civilizations.

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it is a true architecture lesson. For a long time the seat of power, this royal residence was also the home of French heads of state and is one of the main antecedents in the history of Paris and France.

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Historians have long debated the origins of the Louvre, archaeological excavations conducted at the time of the Grand Louvre project in the 1980s have helped to give a clearer picture.

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Nomadic hunter-gatherer groups gradually colonized the banks of the Seine. At the end of the Bronze Age, the Louvre site was still a rural area that men were beginning to develop by clearing land and establishing farms.

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The history of the Louvre begins around 1190 with the decision of Philippe Auguste to erect a fortified enclosure to protect Paris, just as he was preparing to leave the country to go to war in the Crusades, to defend one of the weak points of this fortification , namely its junction with the Seine, a castle was needed: thus the Louvre was born.

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Philippe Auguste's Louvre was not a royal residence, but a garrison fortress. It was not in the very heart of the city, as it is today, but in its outer limits, it also acted as a royal safe and prison for important people.

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After the Hundred Years War, the French kings, who had become used to living outside of Paris, continued to reside mainly in the Loire Valley and only occasionally traveled to the capital a few times a year. Things changed during the reign of François I, after the king's military defeat at the Battle of Pavia in and his captivity in Spain.

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the king wanted to regain control of his capital and decided to establish his main residence there. The medieval castle was updated and at the end of his reign the king decided to have it rebuilt, but the main work was not carried out until the reign of Henry II.

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With the uprisings during the French Revolution in July and October 1789, the government was forced to move to Paris. All the regimes of French rule until 1870 resided in the Tuileries Palace.

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Various interior design works were carried out according to the tastes and fashions of the successive monarchs. The most important contribution during this period remained the Marsan wing.

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The fall of the Empire, the destruction of the Tuileries and the elimination of the seat of power may have marked the triumph of the Louvre museum. However, in fact, the beginning of the Third Republic was a difficult time for the institution. Several large administrative departments invaded the palace, including in particular the Ministry of Finance which occupied the entire site of the former State Department, remaining there until its relocation in 1986.

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The foundation of the École du Louvre also enabled the museum's curators to make their research known and disseminated. The Louvre's universalist ambition also lived on, particularly through the acquisitions of generous benefactors: in 1894 Ernest Grandidier donated his collection of Chinese and Japanese art (now at the Musée Guimet), and the bequest of Baroness Delort de Gléon in 1912 led to the creation of an Islamic art division to be opened after the First World War.