The expansion of the Louvre under Napoleon III in the 1850s, known at the time and until the 1980s as the Nouveau Louvre or Louvre de Napoléon III , was an iconic project of the Second French Empire and a centerpiece of its ambitious transformation of Paris . Its design was initially produced by Louis Visconti and, after Visconti's death in late 1853, modified and executed by Hector-Martin Lefuel . It represented the completion of a centuries-long project, sometimes referred to as the grand dessein ("grand design"), to connect the old Louvre Palace around the Cour Carrée with the Tuileries Palace to the west. Following the Tuileries' arson at the end of the Paris Commune in 1871 and demolition a decade later, Napoleon III 's nouveau Louvre became the eastern end of Paris's axe historique centered on the Champs-Élysées .
57-604: The project was initially intended for mixed ceremonial, museum, housing, military and administrative use, including the offices of the ministère d’Etat and ministère de la Maison de l'Empereur which after 1871 were attributed to the Finance Ministry . Since 1993, all its spaces have been used by the Louvre Museum. Following the French Revolution of 1848 , the provisional government adopted
114-576: A Renaissance palace of the same length between December 1546 and March 1549. This area, the current Lescot Wing , hosted the Salle des Gardes (Hall of the Guards), today known as the Salle des Caryatides, a room for events which also serves as a ballroom. Many historical events took place there, such as the wedding of King Henry IV , an episode of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre , the funeral wake of Henry IV, and
171-564: A decree on the continuation of the rue de Rivoli toward the east and the completion of the Louvre Palace 's north wing, building on the steps taken to that effect under Napoleon . Architect Louis Visconti and his disciple Émile Trélat produced a draft design for completing the entire palace and presented it to the Legislative Assembly in 1849. These plans were not implemented, however, until President Louis-Napoleon
228-569: A taller pavilion between the two, the Pavillon de l'Horloge . Louis XIV had the east wall demolished and renovated by architect Louis Le Vau . These last two walls to be demolished, on the north and east, were simply razed and the ditches filled. Their foundations remained intact and were rediscovered during excavations of the courtyard in 1866. During the construction of the Grand Louvre , basement-level galleries were created for exhibiting
285-842: Is an embarcadero with fast river boats for faster liaisons to other government agencies. It is also served by Paris Métro lines 6 and 14 at Bercy station . The 5-hectare complex is made of five buildings: Sully and Turgot buildings (both occupied by the Directorate-General of the Taxes), the Necker building (along the railways), the Vauban building, and the Colbert building (housing the Ministries). The Colbert building contains two 70-meter long arches weighting 8000 tons each (weight of
342-457: Is one of the most important ministries in the Government of France . Its minister is one of the most prominent cabinet members after the prime minister . The name of the ministry has changed over time; it has included the terms "economics", "industry", "finance" and "employment" throughout its history. The Minister of Economics and Finance oversees: The officeholder, who has authority on
399-691: Is the example of the first window on the left of the second floor of the Lemercier wing on the Pavillon de l'Horloge. Above the window, is an allegorical figure of Law. Then, at window level from left to right: Moses with the Ten Commandments ; the Egyptian goddess Isis with a sistrum ; the Inca emperor Manco Cápac with the sun representing his father, the sun god Inti ; and Numa Pompilius ,
456-526: The Guichet de l'Empereur , now Porte des Lions ) between 1864 and 1869, adorned with two pairs of monumental lions by Antoine-Louis Barye to the south and lionesses by Auguste Cain to the north, with two additional lionesses by Cain in front of the nearby porte Jaujard . At the eastern end of the new project, Lefuel created three monumental archways for the thoroughfare connecting the Pont du Carrousel to
513-708: The escalier du ministre ; administrative offices for the ministère d'Etat , the short-lived ministère de l'Algérie et des Colonies (1858-1860), the ministère de la Maison de l'Empereur (separated from the ministère d'Etat in 1860), and (briefly) the ministère des Beaux-Arts created in early 1870; the Directorate of Telegraphs; barracks for the Imperial Guard ; and the Bibliothèque du Louvre (formerly bibliothèque impériale under Napoleon and bibliothèque du Cabinet du Roi under
570-519: The Cour Carrée and the place du Carrousel , were swept clear. The project was swiftly executed, under the close attention of Napoleon III who visited the works on multiple occasions. The new buildings were substantially completed at the time of their inauguration by the emperor on 14 August 1857. The next day, which was the National Day as the date of " Saint-Napoléon [ fr ] ",
627-645: The Eiffel Tower ). It is the only administrative building in Paris to have been built at a perpendicular angle against the Seine, and the only one that has part of its foundations in the Seine's water. The saying "the Bercy Fortress" (French: la forteresse de Bercy ) refers to the ministry as a dark department with obscure civil servants, especially of high rank. This is emphasised by the impressive look of
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#1732764865735684-627: The Hôtel de Rohan (Paris) [ fr ] . Inside, the idiosyncratic hunting-themed capitals feature heads of horses and other animals, by Emmanuel Frémiet , Pierre Louis Rouillard , Henri Alfred Jacquemart , Germain Demay [ fr ] , and Houguenade. In 1861, the Pavillon de Flore was in serious disrepair. Following the successful completion of the Louvre expansion, Napoleon III endorsed Lefuel's plan to entirely demolish and rebuild both
741-588: The Louvre , a large fortress with four high walls protected by a moat, towers, and a dungeon. Under King Charles V of France (1364-1380), with the population of Paris increasing, Paris spread well beyond the Philip Augustus wall. The king built a new enclosure encompassing the new quarters. With the Louvre Castle now inside the new city walls, it lost much of its military value. The King renovated
798-560: The Louvre Palace in Paris . The wings surrounding it were built gradually, as the walls of the medieval Louvre were progressively demolished in favour of a Renaissance palace . Between 1190 and 1215, Philip Augustus built the Wall of Philip II Augustus around Paris to protect the capital from the English. To reinforce this enclosure on the western side, he built the first incarnation of
855-618: The Philadelphia City Hall (built 1871-1901). Ministry of the Economy and Finance (France) 48°50′21″N 2°22′33″E / 48.83917°N 2.37583°E / 48.83917; 2.37583 The Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty ( French : Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et de la Souveraineté industrielle et numérique , pronounced [ministɛʁ d(ə) lekɔnɔmi e definɑ̃s] ), informally referred to as Bercy ,
912-417: The government of Prime Minister Jean Castex , he is assisted by three junior ministers: Olivier Dussopt as Minister for Public Accounts, Agnès Pannier-Runacher as Minister for Industry and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne as Minister for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Cour Carr%C3%A9e The Cour Carrée ( French pronunciation: [kuʁ kaʁe] , Square Court) is one of the main courtyards of
969-612: The 1620s and from the central pavilion of the Tuileries Palace , itself influenced by Lemercier's. The same inspiration shaped the pavilions named after Richelieu and Denon on the Cour Napoléon's northern and southern sides. Lefuel transformed Visconti's understated original design and added a profusion of elaborate sculptural detail. Despite being criticized by a number of observers, e.g. by Ludovic Vitet , Prosper Mérimée and Horace de Viel-Castel , Lefuel's treatment of
1026-465: The Bercy area . While most of the interior spaces were gutted and rebuilt, the more artistically and historically significant ones were preserved and renovated. These included three monumental staircases, the escalier Lefuel , escalier du ministre and escalier Colbert ; the former ministerial office, rebranded as Café Richelieu ; and the palatial suite of rooms created by Lefuel and his team for
1083-576: The Colbert, Necker and Vauban buildings. Louis Arretche and Roman Karasinski were selected in July 1983 to design the Tugot and Sully buildings. Construction started in 1984. In 1989, the Ministry's employees left the Louvre to move into the new building. Pierre Bérégovoy was the first finance minister to work in the new building. Bruno Le Maire has been Minister of Economics and Finance since 2017. In
1140-729: The Emperor's capture at the Battle of Sedan , Barye's equestrian statue was topped and destroyed. At the end of the Paris Commune on 23 May 1871, the Tuileries Palace was burned down, as was the Bibliothèque du Louvre. Lefuel, together with Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , defended the option of repairing the ruins, but shortly after both died the French parliament decided to tear them down in 1882, largely for political motives associated with
1197-518: The Grosse Tour (Great Tower), which had served as a keep . This took four months and the tower was replaced by a moat serving the main court of the castle. In 1546, the King asked architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon to further renovate the castle. After Francis I's death, his son Henry II (1547–1559) continued the work and oversaw demolition of the west wall, which he replaced with
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#17327648657351254-526: The King decided in 1665 to have the Louvre Colonnade built outside on the east by Claude Perrault and Louis le Vau. As the King did not have the power of expropriation , the work dragged on because it was necessary to buy the land and the houses in front of the future colonnade to clear the view. The King moved to the Palace of Versailles after 1674. Louis XIV also decided to double the width of
1311-501: The Louvre Castle by demolishing the old walls and extending the existing Renaissance wings. Louis XIII demolished the north wall of the castle in 1624. Since the Lescot Wing had been built for the small courtyard of the original castle, it was not easy to integrate it into a courtyard with sides twice as long. The new architect, Jacques Lemercier , duplicated this wing to the north, the present Lemercier Wing (1636), and installed
1368-485: The Louvre's Colonnade Wing to similarly emphasize the continuity of his rule with the long legacy of French monarchy and thus bolster his legitimacy. On the eastern side of the Cour Napoléon, the project entailed no new building but rather the exterior refacing of the pre-existing palace whose interior rooms were left unchanged. For the central pavillon de l'Horloge 's new western façade, Visconti took inspiration from both its eastern side designed by Jacques Lemercier in
1425-609: The Minister of State, rebranded as appartements Napoléon III . The Café Marly , located outside of the Louvre Museum in the same wing and opened in 1994, has been designed by Olivier Gagnère [ fr ] in a reinterpretation of the Second Empire style . Meanwhile, the Cour Napoléon was radically transformed with the erection of the Louvre Pyramid . The nouveau Louvre was highly influential and became
1482-586: The North Wing's eastern half were abandoned in the late 1850s. The South Wing was largely devoted to a series of new spaces for the Louvre Museum that were dubbed the Nouveau Musée Impérial . These included, on the upper ground floor, a new entrance lobby flanked by two long stone-clad galleries, respectively named after Napoleon 's ministers Pierre Daru ( Galerie Daru ) and Nicolas François, Count Mollien ( Galerie Mollien ), with
1539-578: The Pavillon and the wing that connects it to the Nouveau Louvre's South Wing. The project involved the creation of a new ceremonial salle des Etats , closer to the Tuileries than Lefuel's previous Salle des États, in a protruding wing now referred to as the Pavillon des Sessions , with covered space for 16 carriages and 32 horse teams known as the cour de l'en-cas . As this structure took
1596-648: The Restoration), personal property of the emperor but open to the public, on the upper floor between the Pavillon Richelieu and the rue de Rivoli . The latter was acceded by the monumental escalier de la Bibliothèque (known since the late 19th century as escalier Lefuel ), with sculpted decoration by Lefuel's friend Marie-Noémi Cadiot . Initial plans to locate the Minister of the Interior in
1653-420: The abundant architectural sculpture of the Nouveau Louvre, the pediments of the three main pavilions stand out: The latter group includes the depiction of a steam locomotive , then representing cutting-edge technological progress, and the only surviving public portrayal of Napoleon III in Paris. The South Wing's salle du Manège was another opportunity for Lefuel to foster a rich structural program, which
1710-472: The architect of the Palace of Fontainebleau , was appointed to replace him. Lefuel modified Visconti's project, keeping its broad architectural outlines but opting for a considerably more exuberant decoration program that came to define the nouveau Louvre in the eyes of many observers. Old houses and other buildings that still encroached on the central space of the Louvre-Tuileries complex, between
1767-466: The artefacts and architectural remnants of the Medieval Louvre . Louis XIV also had the length of the south wing doubled and built the north wing. Three sides of the courtyard were then in place. The yet to be built east wing was very important as it faced the city with other buildings nearby. This would be the new main entrance to the Louvre. After a contest launched by Jean-Baptiste Colbert ,
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1824-526: The building. During the Grands Projets of François Mitterrand , it was decided that the Ministry of Finance would leave the Louvre 's Richelieu wing where it had been located for 110 years. Forty other offices of the Ministry spread around the capital would be reunited in the new building. After an architectural contest, Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro were selected in December 1982 to design
1881-468: The castle to make it more comfortable, installing numerous windows, adding chimneys, statues, turrets and gardens. After returning from a two-year captivity in Italy and Spain following his defeat at Pavia in 1524, King Francis I of France wanted to transform the old castle of the Louvre into a Renaissance style palace, like those he encountered during his captivity. In 1528, he ordered the demolition of
1938-546: The courtyard. After its abandonment and degradation during the Revolution, Louis XVIII restored the Louvre and put his monogram (two L's of stick characters turning their backs) on the three exterior façades of the Cour Carrée (including the colonnade), despite only restoring them. The buildings form a square of about 160 meters on each side. It consists of eight wings punctuated with eight pavilions . Starting at
1995-507: The entire respective wings of the Louvre museum complex. Thus, the Louvre's North Wing is now known as aile Richelieu , its eastern square of buildings around the Cour Carrée is the aile Sully , and the South Wing is the aile Denon .) Lefuel created two octagonal gardens at the center of the Cour Napoléon (now replaced by the Louvre Pyramid ). In multiple parts of the project, Napoleon III emphasized his role as continuator of
2052-1027: The exemplar of the Second Empire style architecture, subsequently adopted in numerous buildings in France as well as elsewhere in Europe and in the world. Prominent examples include the Crédit Lyonnais headquarters in Paris, the Saigon Governor's Palace in French Indochina , and in the United States, the Old City Hall in Boston (built 1862-1865), the State, War, and Navy Building in Washington DC (built 1871-1888), and
2109-576: The façade of the Pavillon de la Bibliothèque facing the rue de Rivoli . The Nouveau Louvre mostly consists of two sets of buildings or wings, on the northern and southern sides of the central space that is now called the Cour Napoléon. The new buildings were structured around a sequence of pavilions that were given names of French statesmen from the Ancien Régime (North Wing) and the Napoleonic era (South Wing), still used to this day: from
2166-614: The financial assets of the state, the financial and economic national system and the taxation rules overall, also represents France in the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). The Ministry of Economics and Finance is situated in Bercy , in the 12th arrondissement of Paris . The building it shares with the Ministry of Public Action and Accounts extends to the Seine , where there
2223-404: The first performance of a Molière play for King Louis XIV on October 16, 1658. Henry II then demolished the southern wall to pave the way for the construction of the Pavillon du Roi from 1553 to 1556, located at the junction of the south and west wings. At this stage, the building was very heterogeneous since two wings were in the style of a Renaissance palace, while the other two remained in
2280-490: The full width of the building, the Grande Galerie was correspondingly cut short by about a third. The Southern façade was completely changed, as Lefuel disliked Jacques II Androuet du Cerceau 's colossal order and replacing it with a replica of the earlier design attributed to Louis Métezeau further east. Between the Pavillon de Flore and the Pavillon des Sessions, Lefuel created a monumental passageway (then called
2337-477: The great French monarchs of the past, and as the one who completed their unfinished work. On both sides of the Pavillon Sully, black marble plaques bear gilded inscriptions that read, respectively: "1541. François Ier commence le Louvre. 1564. Catherine de Médicis commence les Tuileries," and "1852-1857. Napoléon III réunit les Tuileries au Louvre." Separately, Napoleon III created a Musée des Souverains in
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2394-660: The monumental staircases bearing those same names at both ends; and on the first floor, high-ceilinged exhibition rooms for large paintings, the Salle Daru and salle Mollien , with the Pavillon Denon in the middle, whose lavish interior decoration was completed in 1866. On the same floor, between the Pavillon Denon and the Grande Galerie , Lefuel created a large Estates Hall ( Salle des États ) for state events and ceremonies. Below these prestige spaces
2451-442: The northwest corner and going clockwise, the names of the eight pavilions are: The two wings on either side of the Sully Pavilion are named: At the center of the Cour Carrée, there is a fountain. Although the buildings were built over a period of 250 years, they show great homogeneity. The ground floor and the two floors have successions of windows, bas-reliefs , and statues in niches. The French sovereigns left their monograms on
2508-423: The northwest to the southwest, pavillon Turgot , pavillon Richelieu , pavillon Colbert , pavillon Sully (the project's new name for the pre-existing pavillon de l'Horloge ), pavillon Daru topping the eponymous staircase , pavillon Denon , and pavillon Mollien also featuring a monumental staircase. (From 1989, the names of the three central pavilions have also been given to
2565-1120: The order of the wings from northwest to southwest: . * Eastern side of the Cour Napoléon : François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois , by Aimé Millet ; Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon , by Pierre Hébert ; Jean de Joinville , by Jean Marcellin [ fr ] ; Esprit Fléchier , by François Lanno ; Philippe de Commines , by Eugène-Louis Lequesne ; Jacques Amyot , by Pierre Travaux [ fr ] ; Pierre Mignard , by Debay fils [ fr ] ; Jean Baptiste Massillon , by François Jouffroy ; Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau , by Georges Diebolt ; Jean Goujon , by Bernard Seurre ; Claude Lorrain , by Auguste-Hyacinthe Debay ; André Grétry , by Victor Vilain [ fr ] ; Jean-François Regnard , by Théodore-Charles Gruyère ; Jacques Cœur , by Élias Robert ; Enguerrand de Marigny , by Nicolas Raggi [ fr ] ; André Chénier , by Antoine-Augustin Préault ; Jean-Balthazar Keller [ fr ] , by Pierre Robinet [ fr ] ; and Antoine Coysevox , by Jules-Antoine Droz [ fr ] . Among
2622-407: The parts they built. Those of Henry II, Charles IX , Henry IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV can easily be identified and they help track the history of construction. The Republic did not want to be outdone and installed a rooster in the pediment of the west façade of the central pavilion of the east wing. All the reliefs and statues in the Cour Carrée represent specific allegories or figures. Here
2679-421: The public was invited to roam the new buildings. The young American architect Richard Morris Hunt , who had studied under Lefuel at the École des Beaux-Arts , worked on the Louvre as a junior architect between April 1854 and September 1855, as also did Italian architect Marco Treves from May 1854 to September 1857. Following Hunt's graduation, Lefuel made him inspector of the Louvre work and allowed him to design
2736-429: The south wing in 1668. This is why today there are two series of rooms: on the courtyard side, the rooms of the Charles X Museum; on the side near the river, the rooms of the Campana Gallery for the display of Greek pottery. The river side of the south wing was not completed until a century later. After the royal court moved to Versailles, the unfinished buildings hosted artists. Heterogeneous constructions were erected in
2793-407: The south with the rue de Rohan [ fr ] to the north, known as the guichets du Carrousel or grands guichets du Louvre . The project was completed in 1869 as an equestrian statue of Napoleon III by Barye was placed above the arches of the Grands Guichets. That setting, however, did not last long, as the Second Empire came to its abrupt end. On 6 September 1870, days after
2850-400: The square-dome-roofed pavilions became a seminal model for Second Empire architecture in France and elsewhere. Inside the North Wing were prestige apartments for some of the regime's principal figures, including those of the Minister of State (long mistakenly attributed to the Duke of Morny and now known as the appartements Napoléon III ), served by a monumental staircase later known as
2907-415: The style of a medieval castle with walls, battlements, and towers. Construction on this court paused as Queen Catherine de' Medici focused on the Tuileries Palace , while Henry IV built the Grande Galerie along the River Seine , also known as the Grande Galerie du Bord de l'Eau (Grand Waterside Gallery), which linked the Louvre and the Tuileries. He also planned to quadruple the size of the courtyard of
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#17327648657352964-453: The termination of the monarchy. After the remains of the Tuileries were razed in 1883, the layout that had been created by Napoleon III and Lefuel was fundamentally altered. In the context of the Grand Louvre project initiated by President François Mitterrand in the 1980s, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance was compelled to leave the Louvre's North Wing, in which it had been headquartered since 1871, to specially-built headquarters in
3021-528: Was an extensive complex of stables for up to 149 horses and 34 carriages. At the center of it is the brick-and-stone salle du Manège , a monumental indoor space for horse-riding under the Salle des États, between two interior courts named after Caulaincourt (west) and Visconti (east). (The cour Caulaincourt was renamed after Lefuel following the architect's death in 1880.) The stables were nominally supervised by Great Equerry ( grand écuyer ) Émile Félix Fleury [ fr ] , whose spacious apartment
3078-510: Was executed in 1861 after the Nouveau Louvre's inauguration. Outside in the Cour Lefuel, four bronze groups of wild animals by Pierre Louis Rouillard stand at the start of the two horse ramps : Chienne et ses petits , Loup et petit chien , Chien combattant un loup , and Chien combattant un sanglier . At the top of the ramps above the entrance to the manège, a monumental group, also by Rouillard, features three surging horses that echo Robert Le Lorrain 's chevaux du soleil at
3135-453: Was in a position to prioritize them following his successful coup d'état on 2 December 1851, even before he would formally rebrand himself as Emperor Napoleon III. On Napoleon III's order, Minister François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca commissioned Visconti to design the new Louvre's plans on 30 January 1852, and the first stone was laid on 25 July 1852. After Visconti died of a heart attack on 29 December 1853, Hector-Martin Lefuel , by then
3192-409: Was on the western side of the Cour Lefuel and adorned with a porticoed balcony. The South wing also included barracks for the Cent-gardes Squadron and lodgings for the palace's service personnel. Initially, Visconti's plan was to erect equestrian statues of Louis XIV and Napoleon I at the center of the Cour Napoléon's two octagonal gardens, and another one of Francis I in the Cour Carrée . This
3249-517: Was ostensibly intended to emphasize his claim to legitimacy as the inheritor of France's two (royal and imperial) strands of monarchical development. This program, however, was not realized. Nevertheless, sculptural profusion was one of the defining features of Lefuel's approach. Arguably the most salient component is the series of 86 statues of celebrated figures ( hommes illustres ) from French history and culture, selected by Napoleon III himself, each one labelled with their name. These include, following
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