The Louvre Museum

The Louvre Museum. Heaven? Elysium? A historical, cultural and artistic paradise? A genius's final resting place? All of them combined? Perhaps. The best and the most famous museum of the world, the Louvre attracts millions of visitors to its hallowed precincts every year, year after year.

History

Paris Musuem

Ensconced in the heart of Paris near the Seine, the Louvre is a museum that was originally a palace, which was inhabited by French monarchs. After the incarceration of Louis XVI, the artifacts of the Louvre that belonged to the royal family, became a property of France. The palace became a repository in the year 1793 AD. But the museum had several architectural defects then. Napoleon added to the museum's collections through his conquests. However, many artifacts had to be returned to their original owners when Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Louvre Museum

Treasures

More 'gems and jewels' were added to and subtracted from the Louvre over the next couple of centuries according to whether France gained or lost political leverage. Today, the Louvre boasts of over 380,000 objects. The Louvre showcases some 35,000 artistic works over an area of 60, 600 square meters. Each of the exhibits of the Louvre is a chef d'oeuvre. The glass Pyramid and the Inverted Pyramid of the Louvre attract thousands of tourists with their dazzling symmetry. The Tuileries Gardens border the Louvre in a way a sparkling crown lines the head of a great ruler.

What It Is All About

You must see the Louvre to understand it. Reading a description of the Louvre may give you an idea about the museum but you will understand how spectacular it is only if you visit it. The Louvre is overwhelming. The museum is a microcosm of the glories of the human race. Whether it is art or sculpture, something religious or secular, you will be able to see it all in the realms of the Louvre.

The Ancient and the Modern

Currently, the Louvre is home to a large shopping arcade that is filled with scintillating stores, which sell perfumes, accessories, miniatures, keepsakes, and apparel. Tourists throng the stores and restaurants present in the premises of the Louvre to shop, to window-shop, to eat, and to relax. However, you will feel rather strange if you walk into any of these stores or eateries, especially after you have just emerged from the Denon or any of the other wings of the Louvre. The stark contrast between the ancient and the modern will hit you straight in the face.

The Spirit

Many say that entering the Louvre is like crossing the gates of heaven into the abode of the gods. You will feel much the same way when you visit this timeless museum. Every step that you take in the Louvre, in its corridors and passages, before its renowned masterpieces, statues, paintings and caryatids; every breath that you breathe while treading its floors; every time you take a photograph; every time you turn your head to admire an exhibit; you'll feel as if you're walking through an ageless and magical land, staring at eternity as it unfolds before your eyes.

Greatest Exhibits

Salle 6, the large hall just off the Grande Gallery naturally has the maximum number of visitors as the Mona Lisa resides there. La Giaconda enthralls all her visitors with her mystic smile, she has always enchanted everyone, except perhaps her creator. Even if she is superior to everybody, she has to be inferior to the genius from whose paintbrush she had sprung, Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci's spirit pervades Louvre. You can almost feel the painter-cum-inventor breathing when you visit Salle 6 where Mona Lisa lives, walk down the Grande Gallery, which is adorned by the much revered Madonna of the Rocks, Virgin and Child with St. Anne, and St. John the Baptist, three of Da Vinci's most renowned paintings.

Besides, the Mona Lisa, the Venus De Milo and the Winged Victory are the other most popular attractions of the repository. Both these sculptures are huge and impressive and epitomize the best of the Greco-Roman sculptural styles. These statues bear testimony to the grandeur of the Greek and Roman civilizations, both of which have left their indelible mark on European culture and civilization.

The Egyptian, Islamic and the Chinese exhibits of the Louvre will take your breath away.

A Tribute...

Louvre is an experience. The spirit of the museum is all-encompassing and haunting. The Louvre may be located in Paris but it's much more than Paris. It's an altogether different world, a world of its own, a world that's ancient. The Louvre transports you back to a different era, each time you visit it. The yellowed parchments of history come alive when you visit the museum.

The Louvre is not merely a collection of exhibits, paintings, sculptures and artifacts. It is mankind's tribute to mankind - an embodiment of the power of the human race, the creative spirit of humans and the limitless glory of the human soul.

The Louvre Museum Golden Prison - The Louvre (Pt 2 of 6) Video Clips. Duration : 6.35 Mins.

1978 documentary by Lucy Jarvis

Keywords: 1978, paris, boyer, louvre, jarvis, landmark, museum