From the fortress of Philippe Auguste (1190) to the completion of the "Grand Dessein" (1870), the Louvre palace has extended progressively along the right bank of the Seine. The idea of a Palace of the Muses or "Muséum", where one could view the royal collections, was born in 1747. The museum concept, which was quite new at the time, ran along the same lines as the Encyclopedia and the philosophy of the Enlightenment. From 1779, purchases and museographical projects demonstrate the imminence of its realisation.
Covering an area of some 40 hectares right in the heart of Paris, on the right bank of the Seine, the Louvre offers almost 60,000 square metres of exhibition rooms dedicated to preserving items representing 11 millennia of civilisation and culture.