, to whom, in the main, is due this Cour du Louvre. A
considerable part of Louis XIV.'s decorations bear reference to his
representation as "le roi soleil."
Now, pass through the Pavilion de l'Horloge (called on its west side
Pavilion Sully) into the second of the three courts of the Louvre. To
understand this portion of the building, again, you must remember that
shortly after the erection of the Old Louvre, Catherine de Medici began to
build her palace of the Tuileries, now destroyed, to the west of it. She
(and subsequent rulers) designed to unite the Old Louvre with the
Tuileries by a gallery which should run along the bank of the river. Of
that gallery, Catherine de Medici herself erected a considerable portion,
to be described later, and Henri IV., almost completed it. Later on,
Napoleon I. conceived the idea of extending a similar gallery along his
new Rue de Rivoli, on the north side, so as to enclose the whole space
between the Louvre and the Tuileries in one gigantic double courtyard.
Napoleon III. carried out his idea. The second court in which you now
stand is entirely flanked by buildings of this epoch--the Second Empire.
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