page_title: Louvre Palace
section_title: Royal residence
hierarchical_section_title: Louvre Palace / History / Medieval period (12th–15th centuries) / Royal residence
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La scène paysanne du premier plan représente les semailles. À droite, un homme sème à la volée. Des pies et des corneilles picorent les graines qui viennent d'être semées, à proximité d'un sac blanc et d'une gibecière. Derrière, un épouvantail en forme d'archer et des fils tendus, sur lesquels sont accrochés des plumes, sont destinés à éloigner les oiseaux. À gauche, un paysan à cheval passe la herse sur laquelle est posée une pierre qui permet aux dents de pénétrer plus profondément dans la terre. Il recouvre ainsi les grains qui viennent d'être semés. À l'arrière-plan, le peintre a représenté le Palais du Louvre. Du château au centre, on distingue, outre le donjon central qui accueillait alors le trésor royal, la façade orientale à droite, encadrée par la tour de la Taillerie et la tour de la Chapelle, et à gauche la façade méridionale, avec ses deux tours jumelées au centre. L'ensemble est entouré d'une enceinte ponctuée de trois tours et de deux bretèches, visibles ici. Sur la rive, des personnages conversent ou se promènent.
context_page_description: The Louvre Palace is a former royal palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. Originally a fortress built in the medieval period, it became a royal palace in the fourteenth century under Charles V and was used from time to time by the kings of France as their main Paris residence. Its present structure has evolved in stages since the 16th century. In 1793 part of the Louvre became a public museum, now the Musée du Louvre, which has expanded to occupy most of the building.
context_section_description: The growth of the city and the advent of the Hundred Years' War led Etienne Marcel, provost of the merchants of Paris, to construct an earthen rampart outside the wall of Philip (1356–1358). The new wall was continued and enhanced under Charles V. Remnants of the wall of Charles V can be viewed in the present-day Louvre's Galerie du Carrousel. From its westernmost point at the Tour du Bois, the new wall extended east along the north bank of the Seine to the old wall, enclosing the Louvre and greatly reducing its military value.
  After a humiliation suffered by Charles at the Palais de la Cité, he resolved to abandon it and make the Louvre into a royal residence. The transformation from a fortress to a palace took place from 1360 to 1380. The curtain wall was pierced with windows, new wings were added to the courtyard, and elaborate chimneys, turrets, and pinnacles to the top. Known as the joli Louvre ("pretty Louvre"), Charles V's pleasure palace can be seen in the illustration The Month of October from the Duc du Berry's Très Riches Heures.
caption: Charles V's Louvre in the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry
exif: {}