The Louvre? To this day, no one has provided a convincing explanation on the origin of the word. And yet the term has become synonymous with museum for all of us. A museum that eclipses the palace, in itself another museum of sculptures and paintings that retraces over eight centuries of architecture. This book explains how and why the Louvre was created, conducting a century-by-century analysis of the stages in its construction and recounting its transformations. A lively adventure, in turn brilliant and dramatic, that coincides with the history of France and, at times, with the epic of Europe.