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Louvre Palace

Louvre Palace

Pierre Lescot, Jacques Lemercier, Louis Le Vau, Claude Perrault, Hector Lefuel & I. M. Pei

Photo: Ali Sabbagh · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Paris, France
Client / Owner
Francis I
Year
Completed 1989

Philip II built the original fortress between 1190 and 1202, about 256 by 236 feet (78 by 72 m). Charles V converted it into a royal residence in the 1360s. Francis I had the keep demolished, and Pierre Lescot began the Renaissance wing in 1545 or 1546. Lemercier's Pavillon de l'Horloge was finished in 1639. The east Colonnade, from a committee of Le Vau, Le Brun and Perrault, was built from 1667 and largely finished by 1674.

Napoleon's architects Percier and Fontaine finished the Cour Carrée, about 525 feet (160 m) a side, and Napoleon III's architects Visconti and Lefuel joined the Louvre to the Tuileries. The Nouveau Louvre opened on August 14, 1857.

I. M. Pei's glass Pyramid opened on March 29, 1989, though the text says 1988. The palace covers 99 acres (40 hectares) and 2.6 million square feet (244,000 m²), with 555,600 square feet (51,615 m²) of exhibition space.

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