/ / Musée d'Orsay

 

  It is one of the most interesting museums of modern art in the world, not just for its collection, but particularly for its history. A former railway station converted into a museum, it was designed by the architect Victor Laloux. During the Second World War, there functioned a mailing center here. It later became a theater and then an auction house. It was almost on the point of being demolished, for a new hotel to be built on its site. In 1973, the Department of Museums of France decided that the old station would become a museum and house all art works dating after the second half of the 19th century. D'Orsay station entered the cultural heritage of the state in the same year and the final decision to transform it into a museum came in 1977. In December 1986, the President of the Republic, Francois Mitterrand, inaugurated the new museum. It now houses the impressive works of French painters, sculptors and photographers and includes works of architecture, sculptures, paintings, graphic art, photography, art and decorative art film. 

 

  The collection represents the diversity and artistic creation of the Western world between 1848 and 1914. These came mainly from three places: from the Louvre museum, the art works of artists born after 1820 and art works dating from the Second Republic; Impressionism art works from the museum Jeu de Paume and the art works from the national museum of art, which in 1976 moved to the Centre Georges Pompidou and kept only the art works of artists born after 1878. 

 

  Even before becoming a museum, the station was considered to be a true palace of fine arts, due to its great architecture, as the painter Edouard Detaille said in 1900. In charge for its transformation into a museum were the famous architects Bardon, Colboc and Philippon. Their project preserved the original architecture of the building designed by Victor Laloux, but offered it functionality for the new purpose. The main building became the center of the museum and its marquise turned into the main entrance. 

 

  The museum extends on 57 400 square metres, while the exhibition halls have an area about 16 000 square metres; there are around 80 different galleries with 4000 halls and permanent works. The museum has three floors: the ground floor with the halls on one side and the other of the main room; on the mezzanine floor there are terraces that connect to exhibition halls and the upper floor is arranged just below the vestibule that extends to the hotel on the Bellechasse street. Several other distinct areas are accessible from the three levels and namely the upper pavilion, the glass-stained passages of the main dome in the east side of the railway station, the restaurant of the museum decorated in the old hotel dining room, the library and auditorium.

 

  The interior design of the museum was created by a team of designers and architects under the leadership of Gae Aulenti. Together with Italo Rota, Piero Castiglioni and Richard Peduzzi, he tried to achieve a uniform appearance of the interior with a great volume. The floors have been restored and the old-glass cupola was preserved to provide natural lighting. 

 

  This unique museum is visited by 2.5 million of visitors annually. 

 

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