Thursday, February 1, 2007


About Art - Louvre Pyramid

The Louvre Pyramid is the large metal and glass pyramid which serves as the main entrance to the catacombs and has become a landmark for the city of Paris. It was commissioned by then French president Francois Mitterrand to be built in 1989 by the architect I.M. Pei from New York. The structure, which is constructed entirely of glass segments reaches a height of 70 feet (20.6 meters) and is 115 feet (35 meters) wide at the base. Its construction triggered considerable controversy as many felt this futurist edifice would look out of place in front of the Louvre Museum with its classical architecture but their fears have been proven wrong. The main pyramid is actually only one of several glass pyramids which includes the down-pointing La Pyramide Inversee that functions as a skylight in an underground mall in front of the museum. On March 30, 1989, President Mitterrand lead the first visitors into the Pyramid and the 20-tons of glass built at an estimated cost of 117 million Euros took its rightful role as a maker at the intersection of two walkways of one of the largest, oldest and most important art galleries and museums in the world. It became famous once again when it was used as an important element in the blockbuster movie The De Vinci Code. The website is: www.louvre.fr.

Research information provided by: http://www.wikipia.org/.

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