The palace inside the courtyard

With the side you entered behind you, look at the opposite façade. Find the tall central pavilion. To its left, windows, reliefs and stone ornaments belong to Pierre Lescot’s wing. Decoration surrounds the openings, with figures you can begin to distinguish from this side of the courtyard. Pierre Lescot was the architect chosen by François I, king of France, to rebuild part of the Louvre in the sixteenth century. The sculptor Jean Goujon worked on its decoration. The king knew Italian palaces and wanted to transform his Paris residence. He died soon after work began, and his son Henri II continued it. The courtyard occupies the site of a much smaller medieval castle. Under Philip Augustus, king in the late twelfth century, the fortress protected Paris on this side of the city. Its defences included a great tower and a moat. Those remains can now be visited beneath the palace. What we see from here belongs to later construction. Look back at Lescot’s wing. The size of the windows and the decoration suggest the kind of building being created. It had to house the king and provide halls for receiving guests. Inside this section is the Salle des Caryatides, a ballroom later used to display sculpture. The Cour Carrée was completed in stages. Other kings and architects enclosed its sides and expanded the whole palace. Let your eyes travel around the surrounding façades. The regularity visible today brings together work from different periods, around a space that changed its scale.