The Louvre is the world's largest museum and one of the most impressive art collections in history. The magnificent, baroque-style palace and museum — Le Musée du Louvre in French — sits along the banks of the Seine River in Paris. It is one of the city's biggest tourist attractions.
Today, it covers a total area of 652,300 square feet (60,600 square meters). The Louvre was originally built as a fortress in 1190, but was reconstructed in the 16th century to serve as a royal palace.

The National Assembly opened the Louvre as a museum in August 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings. The museum closed in 1796 because of structural problems with the building. Napoleon reopened the museum and expanded the collection in 1801, and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon.
In 1815, when Napoleon abdicated with the Treaty of Fontainebleau, almost 5,000 artworks were returned to their countries of origin. France was allowed to keep only a few hundred works, and the Louvre reverted to its original name. Many artifacts from Napoleon's conquests in Egypt remained.

The Louvre's collection includes Egyptian antiques, ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, paintings by the Old Masters (notable European artists from before 1800), and jewels and other artifacts for French nobles.
More than 35,000 works are on display. Without question, the Louvre's most famous work is Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," who enchants hordes of visitors with her enigmatic smile.
Because of its size and the scale of its collection, it is impossible to see the entirety of the Louvre in one visit. The museum hosted about 8.1 million visitors in 2017.