Allen Ginsberg once said, "You can't escape the past in Paris, and yet what's so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn't seem to burden." Paris was established over 2000 years ago and is therefore a very rich city in terms of history and culture. I believe it is not only beneficial for people to know their own history and culture but also those of other countries. I will be informing you about the history of some monuments there like The Louvre and Arc de Triomphe (Triumphal Arch), the culture, and the languages spoken there. The Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world. It was never intended to be a museum as it was originally built as a defense fortress by Philip Augustee, the king of France, in 1178. This was built to protect the Parisians from incoming attacks that were coming from other foreign countries. .
Then around 1360, Charles V reconstructed the museum into the royal palace of France. For around 2 centuries, the Louvre was home to French royalty, ambassadors and servants. .
Then around mid-15th century, King Louis XIV began the construction of the palace of Versailles and left the Louvre as the royal home. Within a 100 years from then, the French revolution happened and it was then when the Louvre was transformed into a museum. On August 10th, 1793 it officially opened up to the public with an exhibition of 537 paintings. This was significant because it was the first anniversary of the French monarchy's fall. .
The Louvre, in the 21st century, is now owned by the French government. It holds over 380,000 objects and displays 35000 works of arts in eight departments that stretch over an area of 60,600 square meters. The museum's collection includes Egyptian antiques, ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, paintings and drawings from various artists and other artifacts from French nobles. The painting of Mona Lisa by the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci is housed here.
