Louvre Museum

Louvre Museum is one of the world's largest museums for its collection of art. There are many popular paintings in the world, such as Monalisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. In popular culture, the Louvre museum was a point of interest in the book The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 film based on the book. Louvre Museum also the most visited art museum in Paris, even in the world. The museum is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district) at central landmark of Paris. Louvre Museum's collections are nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century which exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).

Louvre Museum declared as the oldest museum in Europe, because of arts collection and the museum background itself. It is about 6 million of visitors come to this museum every year. Walking through the Louvre Museum is to walk through the history of France and into the minds of kings and revolutionaries. The reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV saw major expansion and a linking of the palaces and halls.

Louvre museum has many collection of painting from Italy, France, Flanders, Netherlands and England. It also displays superb collections of Arabic, Egyptian, Greek and Roman art.

Important paintings include the Pietà of Avignon, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Veronese's immense Wedding at Cana (which was badly damaged in 1992 while being installed in the newly renovated galleries), and Watteau's Embarkation for Cythera.

Beside the painting, there are many kind of the Louvre musem such as Egyptian antiquities, sculpture, islamic art, Near Eastern antiquities, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. There are also decorative art, print and drawing .

Some of the most famous ancient works of art in the Louvre include a statuette of the Sumerian ruler Gudea, a stele bearing Hammurabi's code, an Egyptian painted stone statue of a scribe sitting cross-legged, the Venus de Milo, and the Victory of Samothrace. Among outstanding later works are two marble Slaves by Michelangelo, the treasure of the abbey of St. Denis, and the French crown diamonds.

Louvre museum was created in several phases. Once originally built as fortress in 12th century, it was converted into the royal palace in the 14th century. The Louvre museum became a public museum at the end of the 18th century.

If you visit the Louvre museum, firstly the great glass pyramid welcomes to you, it is the main entrance of the museum. The glass pyramid allows the sunlight to come in on the underground floor. Under the main entrance to the museum is the Carousel du Louvre, a shopping mall operated by Unibail-Rodamco, it is a nice complement to your visit. Among other stores, it has the first Apple Store in France, and a McDonald's restaurant. The Tuileries Gardens close by are beautiful. You may visit it too, and stay in that central Paris district.

It would be easy for you to explore the museum because each side is marked with a color code. Each floor also has its own color code and is divided into 10 sections. Each room is numbered. So, if you want to see a particular collection will be very easy to find.

In the southern part of the museum there is a gallery lined with large glass so that visitors can see more closely the work of a revival of Italian society in the 19th century.

That so pleasant, because there inside the museum you are not prohibited to use your camera or video recorder, it is unlike in the others museum. But you should not to use flashes, it is forbidden inside.

The Louvre is open 9am to 6pm all days except Tuesdays, January 1st, May 1st, November 11th, December 25th. It is open until 10 pm on Wednesday and Friday.