Louvre

The glass pyramid rising from the courtyard of the Louvre serves as the primary entrance to the largest art museum on earth. Before the steel and glass arrival of the nineteen eighties, this site functioned as a defensive fortress built for King Philippe Auguste in the late twelfth century. While the stone foundations of those original walls remain buried beneath the museum floor, the pyramid acts as the point where the city of Paris pours millions of visitors into the former royal palace.