Louvre Museum

France’s national art museum, housed in the Louvre Palace on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris. Home to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, it is the most visited museum in the world.

The Louvre occupies the Louvre Palace on the Right Bank of the Seine, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The palace began as a fortress built under Philip II in the late 12th century; remnants of it can still be seen in the basement. Francis I made it a royal residence, and after Louis XIV moved his household to Versailles in 1682, it housed the royal art collection.

During the French Revolution the National Assembly decided to turn it into a museum, which opened on 10 August 1793. Today its collections range from the ancient civilisations of the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome to Western art up to the mid-19th century and Islamic art, and include the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It is part of the World Heritage Site “Paris, Banks of the Seine”.