LEGO Architecture Louvre 21024 Building Instructions page 4

History
From Fortress to Museum
The original Louvre was a fortress built in the late 12th
century to protect the city of Paris. Located on the
western edge of the city, the structure was gradually
engulfed as Paris grew. The dark fortress from the
Middle Ages was continually altered and expanded,
before being transformed into a Renaissance style
royal palace from 1546 onwards.
When Louis XIV moved his royal court from the Louvre
to the recently enlarged Palace of Versailles in 1678,
much of the royal art collection remained at the Louvre.
A number of national cultural institutions and scholarly
societies moved into the Louvre, which also became a
residence for artists. In 1699, the Académie Royale de
Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting
and Sculpture) held its first public exhibition in the
building's Grande Galerie (Great Gallery).
The transformation of the Louvre into the museum we
know today began with the French Revolution. In 1791
the new National Assembly declared that the Louvre
should be "a place for bringing together monuments
of all the sciences and arts", and when Louis XVI was
arrested in 1792, his royal art collection became national
property. The Louvre Museum officially opened a year
later, giving free public access to a collection that
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included works by da Vinci, Raphael, Poussin and
Rembrandt.
Throughout the next 200 years, the Louvre would
witness the restoration and abolishment of the French
monarchy, the Napoleonic era, plus the establishment
of five new French Republics. The museum's collection
increased throughout this turbulent period and by the
early 1980s, it was clear that a major renovation was
needed to improve the displays and provide better
amenities for the increasing number of visitors.