If you were to visit everything in the Louvre, you would need some sensible shoes to walk through this series of rooms totaling 652,300 square feet and approximately 14 kms of linear walking distance.
Every year, 7 million visitors dutifully line up and elbow their way through this historical masterpiece. Here you will see 35,000 pieces of art, including the famous Mona (Monna) Lisa and and Nike of Samothrace. If you were to spend just 4 seconds looking at each object, it would take over three months.
About the Louvre itself:
During the Middle Ages, the king, feeling threatened by his Anglo-Norman neighbours, built a fortress.
In the 1500’s, the King of France made the Louvre his castle and began expanding it to create the “Chateau Louvre”. With each passing King, the castle’s size and its art collection grew. You are still able to see part of the medieval fortress on the lowest floor of the museum.
In 1682, King Louis XVI moved the Royal Family to the Palace of Versailles and opened the art display at the Chateau Louvre to the public and the arts community. By this time quite a number of the famous paintings had been collected.
There was this "little" event called the French Revolution and eventually the Chateau Louvre became the property of the government and became what is now known as the Louvre Museum.
In the 1980s, the Finance department of the France Government moved out of the Louvre to make way for a the development of a complete museum. At this time, the glass pyramid which stands today was developed in the courtyard, providing light into an impressive lobby down below.
Apparently the jury is still out among the French whether this modern feature ruins the look of the Louvre or not, but in any case it certainly stands as a key symbol of this city.
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