The Louvre began around 1190 as a fortress built by King Philip II on the western edge of medieval Paris. Its thick walls, defensive towers, and central keep guarded the Seine approach to the city before the king departed on crusade. As Paris expanded, the fortress lost much of its military purpose. Charles V converted it into a royal residence during the fourteenth century, creating apartments and a library within the walls. Foundations of the medieval stronghold remain visible beneath the present museum and reveal the defensive origin of a complex now associated with art.

Francis I ordered the old keep demolished and began transforming the Louvre into a Renaissance palace in the sixteenth century. Architect Pierre Lescot designed a new wing with sculptural decoration by Jean Goujon. Successive monarchs enlarged the residence, often leaving ambitious plans incomplete. Catherine de’ Medici built the Tuileries Palace to the west, while Henry IV connected the two palaces through the Grande Galerie along the Seine. Under Louis XIII and Louis XIV, the Cour Carrée was expanded and the celebrated eastern colonnade gave the palace a monumental classical facade.

When Louis XIV moved the royal court to Versailles in 1682, artists, academies, and officials occupied much of the Louvre. The idea of displaying the royal collection there gained strength during the eighteenth century. The French Revolution converted that idea into a public institution. In 1793 the Central Museum of the Arts opened in the former palace, presenting works seized from the Crown, the Church, and émigré collections as national property. Napoleon greatly enlarged the holdings through military conquest, although many objects were returned after his defeat.

Nineteenth-century governments continued building. Napoleon III completed wings that joined the Louvre and Tuileries into an immense palace complex. The Paris Commune destroyed the Tuileries Palace by fire in 1871, leaving the Louvre’s western courtyard open toward the city. The museum’s collections grew through excavation, purchase, donation, colonial activity, and transfers from other state collections. Their organization into departments reflected changing scholarly categories and France’s evolving understanding of art, archaeology, and national heritage.

The Grand Louvre project of the late twentieth century transferred remaining government offices out of the palace and reorganized the museum around I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid, opened in 1989. The contrast between the modern entrance and the historic courtyards makes the building’s long transformation visible. The Louvre is therefore both a museum and a historical document: a medieval fortress, royal residence, revolutionary public institution, imperial showcase, and modern national museum occupying the same continually adapted site.