The Louvre opened on this day in 1793. The Parisian royal palace had been converted to a public space in a show of anti-monarchical spirit, half a year after the king was executed for treasonous behavior. It was also a show of its ideological commitment to enlightening the public through sharing the intellectual side of life outside of a clique of rich folks. It’s continued to do that to this day and now serves as the world’s most-visited art museum.
The palace was first built in 1546 on the site of an old fortress, and grew its footprint over time as monarchs added onto it. When King Louis XIV moved the royal court out to Versailles in 1682, the building was left sitting empty until the space was effectively rented in parts to cultural groups, social elites, and entrepreneurial tradesmen and artists.
Two generations on, King Louis XVI was forced at threat of violence to move his court back to Paris so he was governing where the people were. He operated out of a separate palace, while the court’s nobles filled the Louvre’s halls once again. When the monarchy was scrapped, the new powers that be had to figure out what to do with the Palais du Louvre. They opted to turn a large part of the building into the “Muséum central des arts de la République,” which became free to access for the public a few days a week. At the time, it held less than a thousand pieces on display.
It’s grown exponentially since then. Nowadays, over 650,000 square feet are dedicated to the museum’s permanent collection. Currently, around 35,000 pieces are on display, though the Louvre has around half a million objects total in its collection.
