The Louvre is one of the most visited attractions in Paris with about 9.3 million visitors every year human. The reason for its popularity is its collection of 35,000 priceless masterpieces and antiques. It offers the most comprehensive art galleries with a wide range of topics ranging from the 6th century BC to the 19th century.
The Louvre is the largest museum in the world. It’s so big that it’s impossible to see all the museums in one visit.
How long does it take? Well, if you ever had more 100 days off, you would see every piece of art, but you could only spend 30 seconds on each piece, and that would be 24 hours every day. The museum offers a total of 380,000 items, but not all collections are shown to visitors. Located on the banks of the Seine in Paris, the Musee du Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palais Museum. In August 1793, the Louvre opened its gates to the public. There are many wonderful paintings here, from the famous “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo to “Death of the Virgin” » Caravaggio.
Louvre museum interesting facts:
1. When Napoleon came to power, the complex was renamed in his honor, and soon the building was named the Napoleon Museum. After the collapse in 1814, the museum received its current name.
2. The Mona Lisa painting has its own mail box to collect all love letters from fans.
3. The Louvre was not originally a museum. This was a fortress built in 1190. In the 16th century, the Louvre was transformed from a fortress into a royal palace. It wasn’t until 1793, when the French monarchy moved into the Palace of Versailles, that the first Louvre museum was opened to the public with a total of 537 paintings.
4. Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci is undoubtedly one of the most famous works of art in the Louvre, where people from all walks of life come to the museum to see the world-famous painting.
5. Napoleon once changed the name of the Louvre to the Napoleon Museum and expanded the collection to 5,000 pieces. However, after the warlord’s defeat, the works were returned to their original owners.
6. The Louvre Museums are also outside the 16th-century museum and palace because they are connected to Eugenie Delacroix’s Moorish Museum and access to the Tuileries Gardens, the oldest park in Paris.
7. 15,000 people visit museums every day, of which 70% are foreign tourists. More than 9.3 million people visited the Louvre in 2014 alone.
8. There are about 7,500 paintings in the galleries, 66% of which are by French artists.
9. During his reign, Napoleon hung Mona Lisa in his private bedroom.
10. Mona Lisa measures only 53 x 77 cm.It is only slightly larger than A2 sheet.
11. The Mona Lisa also has its own security and is protected by bulletproof glass, however it was stolen in 1911 and returned to the Louvre only two years later.
12. Mona Lisa’s personality is a mystery and no one has ever been able to find out why she smiles so much. Many believe that she is the wife of Francesco del Giocondo because her real name in Italian was Lisa Gioconda. Others believe the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait and a nod to Leonardo da Vinci’s alleged homosexuality.
13. During World War II, the Nazis used the Louvre as a warehouse for stolen art.
14. The buildings of the Louvre were once abandoned and rotting. After the Palace of Versailles was built, the French court moved its base from Paris and the Louvre, leaving the building unfinished and in ruins. Cultural groups, including artists, sculptors, and writers, have sprung up in buildings that have been left open. More than a century later, building rose again as the Bourbon series of kings lavishly invested money and artistic content in it – until the fall of the monarchy and the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.
15. Many of da Vinci’s works were added to the collection of Francis I, including La Giaconda, one of the most famous paintings in the world. According to French folklore, Francis was even at da Vinci’s bedside when he died, and after the artist’s death in 1519, the king bought the painting from an assistant. However, instead of digging through the walls of the Louvre, the painting has been intertwined for centuries with a number of royal palaces, spending time in Fontainebleau and Versailles. Only after the fall of the monarchy and the creation of the Louvre as a public museum did the Mona Lisa find a permanent home.
16. It is believed that a mother named Belphegor lives in the museum. It is also believed that people dressed in red often appear in the nearby Tulery Gardens.
17. The Louvre Glass Pyramid was built in 1989 and is 21 meters high. It is made entirely of glass and metal and is currently one of the city’s most recognizable monuments.
18. The museum is located in 1 district in the center of Paris, France, on the banks of the Seine.
19. In the 15th century, the French kings didn’t go to the Louvre because they didn’t like the big building. It was also used as a prison and office of the Treasury.
20. The Louvre Pyramid was built in 1989 by order of the President of France. Height is 20 meters, area is 1225 square meters, it consists of almost 700 glass panels.
21. Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite, is one of the most popular exhibits in the Louvre.
22. Works by Michelangelo, Raphael and Caravaggio can be seen in the Louvre.
