Audiotour 2 Pujet Courtyard (room 105)

We are here in the Pujet courtyard. This beautiful courtyard allows us to appreciate the astonishing architecture of the museum.

A few words about the history of the Louvre. The Louvre is the former palace of the kings of France. Originally, it was a fortress built around a dungeon on the banks of the Seine.This medieval Louvre built in the 13th century became the residence of the kings of France in the following century.

Henri IV decides in his grand design the junction with the Palais des Tuileries, the first stage of which is the construction of the Grande Galerie. It is then the residence of heads of state and the theater of power. The Louvre then becomes the Napoleon Museum. Expansion and then renovation work in the 1990s led to the current Grand Louvre.

The Richelieu wing is the most recent in the long history of the construction of the Louvre. It was built under Napoleon III and housed the Ministry of Finance until 1989 before welcoming the new rooms of the Department of Oriental Antiquities,

This department has existed for over 170 years. At this time, in the United States, the gold rush began, just before the Civil War.

By heading up to the right towards the entrance to the department, we can comment on some of the works in this room.