PARIS - LOUVRE PALACE- PALAIS DU LOUVRE

History of the building is very complex but one can roughly subdivide it into few phases:

•  Founded in 12th century - (middle ages) by king Phillip II Augustus edifice on the right bank of the River Seine was a simple rectangular in plan fortress with four corner defending bastions with a central courtyard and a tower called Donjon or the Keep.With the time, the building was frequently renovated and became one of the residences for royal familly and its court.

• Thanks to the next king, Francis I of France the structure had the Donjon/Keep removed and was re- shaped to Renaissance style palace by architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon.The oldest egxisting part of the massive complex is the one by Pierre Lescot and is located within the second internal courtyard of the building.

• Another enhancement of the complex called Palais des Tuileries facing the Louvre was designed in mid 16th century under Catherine de Medici by architects Philibert de L'Orme and Jean Bullant.

• The other famous renaissance architects working on the design of that great complex were Jaques Androuet de Cerceau and Louis Metezeau -in late 16th century they created a link between the Palais des Tuileries and Louvre - along the bank of the River Seine.

•  In the early 17 th century under Louis XIII the north wing as a continuation of the Lescot Wing was designed by Jacques Lemercier.

•  In mid 17th century, under Louis XIV, architects Le Vau ( mainly interiours and an a design for a chapel) and Andre Le Notre (re-designing the Tuileries garden in a French style)were employed.

• In the late 17th century the same king employed the most talented architects of the time Calude Perrault and Gian Lorenzo Bernini to enclose the second courtyard of the complex with an astern wing. Perrault proposal for a building with a flat roof, doubled columns within the collonaded galery, and a central portico resambling the triumphal arch was chosen in the end and constructed building became one of the most iconic classical fasades in Europe.

• When in 1678 the royal residence moved to Versailles , the Palais du Louvre became a national and world's largest museum full of works of masters like Giorgione, Tiziano, Leaonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt,Veronese, Rafael Santi and many more