Paris's largest monument is the Louvre , for centuries the site of the French court, and renowned today as one of the world's greatest art galleries. It began life as a fortress, built by Philippe-Auguste in 1200 as a place to store his scrolls, jewels and swords. Charles V was the first French king to actually live there, but it wasn't until the reign of François I, in the mid-sixteenth century, that the foundations of the palace were laid and the fortress demolished. From then on, almost every sovereign added to it. Twice, it came very close to being demolished. The first occasion was under Louis XIV, when Bernini was very nearly hired to redesign the palace. His proposal was to raze it to the ground and start from scratch, but fortunately, he lost the commission. The palace's other close shave came in the mid-eighteenth century, when the Louvre was taken over by artists and squatters; over a hundred different families lived around the cour Carrée. Louis XV's response was to call for its immediate destruction, but he was eventually dissuaded by his officials.

 

Every alteration and addition up to 1988 created a surprisingly homogeneous building, with a grandeur, symmetry and Frenchness entirely suited to this most historic of Parisian edifices. Then came the most recent addition, made by President Mitterrand as part of his Grand Louvre renovation project - a huge glass pyramid, set bang in the centre of the cour Napoléon. It was an extraordinary leap of daring and imagination. Conceived by the Chinese-born architect Ieoh Ming Pei, it has no connection to its surroundings, save as a symbol of symmetry. Mitterrand also managed to persuade the Finance Ministry to move out of the northern Richelieu wing. Its two courtyards were roofed over in glass and now house the museum's French sculpture and the Objets d'Art collections. A public passageway, the passage Richelieu , linking the cour Napoléon with rue de Rivoli, allows you to look down into these courtyards.

Mitterrand's project also dramatically extended the Louvre underground, with the entrance hall, the Hall Napoléon , beneath the Pyramid, leading into a series of galleries known as the Carrousel du Louvre . Smart shops, restaurants, exhibition and conference spaces fill the vast spaces, and an inverted glass pyramid lets in light from place du Carrousel.

Napoleon's pink marble Arc du Carrousel , just east of place du Carrousel, which originally formed a gateway for the former Palais des Tuileries, has always looked a bit out of place; now it is definitively and forlornly upstaged by the Pyramid.

The Palais du Louvre itself houses four museums : the Musée du Louvre; the Musée de la Mode et du Textile; the Musée des Arts Décoratifs; and the Musée de la Publicité. Each has been revamped under the Grand Louvre project, and each is an important collection in its own right, but the most renowned by far - and the reason to come to Paris for many of its visitors - is the mighty Musée du Louvre .