LOUVRE MUSEUM OFFICIAL TICKETS
Discover the collection of the museum with direct access
- Skip the line
- Duration 3 hours
- Audio guide; ENG, SPA, FRA, DEU, POR, ITA, RUS, JPN, ZHO
- Guided Tour
- Minimum age +18
- The voucher is accepted on the mobile
- Wheelchair accessible
- Discount for children under 18 years old
Welcome to the Louvre Museum
A Timeless Icon of History and Architectural Grandeur
International prestige
Discover one of the legendary Seven Wonders of the World!
+ 12 million visitors per year
Eenjoy a unique museum in the world
The Louvre Museum is located in Paris, France. It is one of the most important and visited museums in the world, as well as a symbol of universal culture, with more than 7 million visitors a year. It houses more than 480,000 works, organized in the following main departments:
Egyptian Antiquities
One of the most complete collections outside Egypt, ranging from 4000 BC to the fourth century AD. Highlights include pieces such as the Seated Scribe, the Great Sphinx of Tanis and the Statue of Ramses II.
Near Eastern Antiquities
Includes artifacts from ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Persia, including the Code of Hammurabi, Assyrian reliefs and monumental sculptures from the palaces of Nimrud.
Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities
Iconic works such as the Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace and imperial busts showcase the classical splendor of the ancient Mediterranean.
Islamic Art
A collection ranging from Spain to India, with objects from the 7th to the 19th century: ceramics, calligraphy, textiles, and pieces in ivory and metal. Highlights include the Pyx of al-Muguira and the Baptistery of St. Louis.
Paintings
With more than 7,500 works, it includes paintings by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and Delacroix. The Mona Lisa is one of the most visited pieces. Other highlights include Jan van Eyck’s The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin and Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.
Sculptures
Covers works from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. It includes pieces such as Michelangelo’s Rebel Slave and the Diana of Versailles.
Decorative Arts
Offers a collection of objects from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, including furniture, ceramics and jewelry, highlighting the porcelain of Sèvres and the Gallery of Apollo, which houses the French crown jewels.
Drawings and Prints
Contains a vast collection of works on paper, from Renaissance sketches to modern prints, showing the evolution of graphic techniques. It includes drawings by Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and French artists such as Ingres.
The Museum opens at 9.00 am to 6.00 pm: Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
The Museum opens at 9.00 am to 9.00 pm: Wednesday and Friday
The Museum CLOSED: Tuesday
Last entry: 1 hour before closing
Clearing of rooms: 30 minutes before closing
Public holidays: the Louvre is closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. It remains open on all other public holidays unless they fall on a Tuesday, the museum’s day of closure.
The Cour Carrée closes at 11pm.
The Cour Carrée will be closed from 7 April to 25 June 2025.
Dear visitor, welcome to the Parco archeologico del Colosseo.
RULES AND RESTRICTIONS FOR SAFETY, CONSERVATION, AND DECORUM
It is strictly forbidden to:
– write on the walls or on the artefacts
– damage or remove archaeological material
– light fires
WHOEVER WRITES ON THE WALL DAMAGES DESTROYS DISPERSES DETERIORATES ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND MONUMENTAL ASSETS IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK SHALL BE PUNISHED BY IMPRISONMENT OF 2 TO 5 YEARS AND A FINE RANGING FROM EUR 2.500 TO EUR 15.000 (art. 518 duodecies of the Penal code)
RULES OF CONDUCT
Following the natural boundaries of the ancient Palatine, Velian and Oppian Hills, and including the valley of the Forum and the Colosseum, the Parco covers a vast archaeological area which is mostly situated on uneven terrain. Many areas are accessible via historic walking paths which are often rocky, uneven and which include ancient steps that are not always level. Furthermore, the Flavian Amphitheater contains some very steep steps and paths which are at times rough and uneven.
During your visit, you are kindly requested to pay careful attention to your footing along walking paths and to observe the following rules.
- Areas closed to the public are off-limits to visitors
- No walking or loitering outside of marked walking paths
- No leaning over railings or banisters
- No running
- Appropriate footwear is advised (high heels and flip-flops are not recommended)
- Children must be supervised and held by the hand at all times
- Clothing appropriate to the formal setting of the site is required, prohibiting ceremonial dresses, masks, period costumes and any other fancy dress undignified for such places
- Visitors are asked to respect designated walking paths
- Please pay attention to the pavement along walking paths at all times
- Visitors may only follow walking paths open to the public
- Visitors are advised to exercise caution on uneven steps
- Visitors shall assume full responsability regarding choice to access those area with more difficult footing (inclined footpaths, stairways with particularly steep steps). PArCo administration therefore accepts no liability in the event of accidents or injuries.
Its history begins in 1190 as a fortress built by King Philip Augustus. It was later transformed into a royal residence in the 16th century under Francis I. In 1793, during the French Revolution, it was inaugurated as a public museum. Since then, it has undergone several expansions and renovations, including the addition of the iconic Crystal Pyramid in 1989, designed by Ieoh Ming Pei.
The Louvre began its existence in the 12th century as a fortress built by King Philip Augustus to protect Paris from invasion. This defensive structure was located at the western end of the city and served as a strategic lookout point.
During the reign of Charles V in the 14th century, the fortress was transformed into a royal residence. Later, in the 16th century, King Francis I initiated a series of renovations that continued under Henry IV and Louis XIII, converting the building into a Renaissance palace. These renovations reflected the monarchs’ desire to establish a residence in keeping with the splendor of the French monarchy.
The idea of converting the Louvre into a museum arose in the 18th century. Louis XVI planned the transformation of the palace into a public museum, and during the French Revolution, in 1793, the
Louvre Museum was officially inaugurated, exhibiting works confiscated from the Church and the nobility.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Louvre underwent several extensions and renovations. One of the most significant was the construction of the Glass Pyramid in the Cour Napoléon, designed by the architect I.M. Pei and inaugurated in 1989. This modern structure serves as the main entrance and symbolises the fusion of the ancient and the contemporary.
The Forum was originally covered by a swamp. It was only in the late 7th century BCE that the valley was reclaimed and the Roman Forum began to take shape. It was destined to remain the centre of public life for over a millennium.
The various monuments were built through the centuries: first the buildings for political, religious and commercial activities, then during the 2nd century CE the civil basilicas, used for judicial activities. Already at the end of the republican age, the ancient Roman Forum had become insufficient to serve as the administrative and representative centre of the city.
The various dynasties of emperors added only prestigious monuments: the Temple of Vespasian and Titus and that of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, dedicated to the memory of the deified emperors, and the monumental Arch of Septimius Severus, built at the western end of the Forum in 203 CE to celebrate the emperor’s victories over the Parthians.
The last great development was carried out by the emperor Maxentius in the early years of the 4th century CE, when the temple dedicated to the memory of his son Romulus and the imposing Basilica on the Velian Hill was erected. The last monument built in the Forum was the Column erected in 608 CE in honour of the Byzantine emperor Phocas.
After this date, part of the area was gradually buried under silt, turning to meadow and taking the name of the Campo Vaccino, but some monuments survived by being converted into churches. The Iulia Curia became the church of Sant’Adriano; part of the temple of Antonino and Faustina was transformed into the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, while the temple of Romulus became the church of the Santi Cosma and Damiano. The church of Santa Maria Nova was erected in the 9th century in one of the cells of the Temple of Venus and Roma. In the 16th century, the church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami was constructed over the Mamertine Prison, the medieval name of the Tullianum, an ancient jail built by Ancus Marcius (640–616 BCE), where Catiline and Vercingetorix were imprisoned. According to an unproven medieval tradition, St. Peter was also held prisoner in it. Finally, in the 17th century, the church of Santi Luca e Martina was rebuilt on the ruins of the Secretarium Senatus.
It was not until the unification of Italy that the first systematic excavation work was carried out in the area.
The Palatine hill preserves the remains of Iron Age settlements connected with the earliest core of the city of Rome. The hill was home to important civic cults, including the Magna Mater (Cybele) and, between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, it became the residential district of the Roman aristocracy, with elegant houses characterised by exceptional painted and paved decorations, such as those preserved in the House of the Griffins. Augustus symbolically chose the hill as the site of his own house, which consisted of several buildings, including the House of Livia. Later the hill became the site of the imperial palaces: the Domus Tiberiana, the Domus Transitoria and then the Domus Aurea, and finally the Domus Flavia, divided into a public and private sector, the latter being known as the Domus Augustana. From their complex and partly overlapping plans, it is possible to understand how the different residences were connected to each other partly by underground passages, often richly decorated, of which the Neronian Cryptoporticus remains one of the best preserved examples. The presence of the imperial residences on the hill gave rise to a process of identification. In this way the toponym Palatium came, in modern languages, to mean a royal palace.
At the Renaissance, the Palatine became the property of aristocratic families who built villas and planted vineyards and gardens on it. Today there still survives a part of the fascinating Horti Farnesiani, on the upper part of the hill, as well as the Loggia Stati-Mattei with its pictorial decorations. Some of the most significant artefacts found in the excavations of the site since the 16th century are now displayed in the Museo Palatino.
After the devastating fire of 64 AD, which destroyed much of the centre of Rome, the emperor Nero began building a new residence, which for pomp and splendour went down to history by the name of the Domus Aurea.
Designed by architects Severus and Celer and decorated by the painter Fabullus, the palace consisted of a series of buildings separated by gardens, woods and vineyards and an artificial lake, which lay in the valley where the Colosseum stands today. The main nuclei of the palace were on the Palatine Hill and Oppian Hill and they were famous for the sumptuous decoration in which gold and precious stones were added to stuccos, paintings and coloured marbles. The huge complex included bathrooms with normal and sulfurous water, several banqueting rooms, including the famous coenatio rotunda, which rotated on itself, and a huge vestibule that housed the colossal statue of the emperor in the garments of the Sun God.
After Nero’s death his successors decided to erase all traces of the emperor and his palace. The luxurious chambers were deprived of their cladding and sculptures and filled in with earth up to the vaults to be used as the substructures for other buildings.
The parts that can be visited today are those on the Oppian hill: these areas were probably used for holding festivities and banquets. After they were buried, they remained unknown until the Renaissance. Only then, after some chance discoveries, did artists with a passion for antiquities, such as Pinturicchio, Ghirlandaio, Raphael and Giulio Romano, begin to explore what they thought of as “underground grottoes”, to copy the decorative motifs in them. Because of their location, they were called “grotesques.” Even today the term “grotesque painting” is used to indicate a genre, very common above all in the 16th century, which imitates the patterns of Roman wall decoration, reworking and reinterpreting them in playful and imaginative ways.
