Paris is one of the most charming cities in the world. There’s a lot about Paris that makes it one of the top tourist destinations year after year. Of course, everybody knows about the Eiffel Tower but that is not the only landmark that Paris is known for. The city’s extensive historical record has procured a myriad sights that you must visit if you decide to go to Paris and one of the absolute musts is the Louvre Museum.
History of the Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum is in fact a palace that dates back to the middle ages. It was King Philippe-Auguste who first built a fortress at the location of what we know call the Louvre Palace. Back then it was just a fortress that served as a military stronghold to defend Paris and some of the ditches of the fortifications are on display in the Carrousel du Louvre.
Charles V decided that he wanted a castle and transformed the Louvre into a castle with the help of Raymond du Temple. The building was turned into a luxurious residence before it being abandoned during the Hundred Years War.
But perhaps the most important period for the Louvre Palace was during Francois I’s time. This period saw the Louvre demolished and rebuilt into a Palace which was under construction all the way until Louis XIV and one of his kin, Louis XVI decided to turn the palace into a museum and many important historical figures such as the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte made large contributions to the current inventory of the museum.
Visiting the Louvre Museum
So, what do you need to know before you purchase a Louvre ticket online and head down to Paris to give it a look? Well, picking the right entrance is a great start.
Being the world’s largest museum, you can imagine there would be plenty of different entry points and it is very easy to choose one that is always crowded or doesn’t have good views of the amenities. If you want to make the most out of your visit and see some of the most impressive art exhibits in history, you should make an entrance at the Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre metro station or the Carrousel du Louvre. This way you are guaranteed to have the best backdrops for a picture and smaller queues.
The Louvre is so large that it is impossible to see it all in one visit. To make the most out of your trip, you need to know what it is that you would really love to see. Of course, the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world by the master Leonardo da Vinci, is on top of the list, but the Louvre has an extensive collection of many of the world’s best masterpieces, and you can’t see them all in one day. So make a priority list of what you must see and when you get there, avoid wandering around. The Louvre has so many interesting things which makes it very easy to lose track and get sidetracked and if you have a list of things that you came to see, this will take too much of your time. But if you do not have a priority list, then you can enjoy the Louvre even without a plan. In the end, that’s what you’re there for.
Besides the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the Louvre is home to many other masterpieces made by famous painters and sculptors from different historical periods and different geographical regions. Among its extensive collections are works of art from the French medieval artists as well as Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Islamic arts. These are just scratching the surfaces of everything that you can find at the Louvre, so if you want to have some sort of a closure on everything you’re seeing, you’re advised to get a private tour that will create an effective plan to go through the things that you want to see.
The Louvre is a museum that sees about 8 million visitors per year, so you need to be prepared to move through crowds, especially at areas that display iconic pieces of art. The tickets are not expensive, and it would be a great mistake not to visit the Louvre Museum if you go to Paris. Even without its magnificent exhibit collection, the Louvre is an architectural masterpiece that you must see so start planning your trip and you will give yourself the opportunity to really add something valuable to your cultural enrichment.