The Pavillon de l’Horloge ("Clock Pavilion"), also known as the Pavillon Sully, is a prominent architectural structure located in the center of the western wing of the

Cour Carrée The Cour Carrée (, Square Court) is one of the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The wings surrounding it were built gradually, as the walls of the medieval Louvre were progressively demolished in favour of a French Renaissance archi ...

of the

Louvre Palace The Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxe ...

in Paris. Since the late 19th century, the name Pavillon de l'Horloge has generally been applied to the structure's eastern face, which dates from the 17th century, and the name Pavillon Sully to its western face, which was redecorated in the 1850s as part of Napoleon III's Louvre expansion.

History

The pavilion was built just north of the older

Lescot Wing The Lescot Wing (Aile Lescot in French, also Aile Henri II) is the oldest preserved structure above ground of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It was designed by architect Pierre Lescot and built between 1546 and 1551. Its architecture is ...

between 1624 and about 1645, a protracted process because of the difficulties faced by France in the late 1620s and 1630s. The structure and its iconic square-domed roof were designed by architect

Jacques Lemercier Jacques Lemercier (; c. 1585 in Pontoise – 13 January 1654 in Paris) was a French architect and engineer, one of the influential trio that included Louis Le Vau and François Mansart who formed the classicizing French Baroque manner, drawin ...

, who was selected in a competition in 1624. On 1 September 1794, a

semaphore Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...

or of the type recently invented by

Claude Chappe Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore line, semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within l ...

was installed at the top of the Pavilion. It remained there until 1806, when it was removed for aesthetic and safety reasons by the Louvre's architect Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine. In the early 19th century, a clock () was placed on the

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

level, giving the pavilion its current name. The western façade was comprehensively remodeled by Hector-Martin Lefuel in the 1850s during the Second Empire. that is when the name of Pavillon Sully (after

Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully Maximilien de Béthune Sully, 1st Prince of Sully, Marquis of Rosny and Nogent, Count of Muret and Villebon, Viscount of Meaux (13 December 156022 December 1641) was a French nobleman, soldier, statesman, and counselor of King Henry IV of France ...

) was given to it. Lefuel also rebuilt the structure's two iconic chimneys, which had been demolished in the early 19th century.

Interior

The underground level or was first designed in the 1930s by Louvre architect Albert Ferran as part of a broader plan to create a seamless museum itinerary on the ground level of the Cour Carrée. It was remade in the 1980s as part of the Grand Louvre project, under which it also connects the underground spaces beneath the

Louvre Pyramid The Louvre Pyramid () is a large glass-and-metal entrance way and skylight designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyr ...

with the newly established rooms preserving the remains of the

Medieval Louvre The Louvre Castle (), also referred to as the Medieval Louvre (), was a castle () begun by Philip II of France on the right bank of the Seine, to reinforce the city wall he had built around Paris. Over time, it was expanded but was generally ...

. On the first floor above the passageway are a corridor linking the two monumental staircases that flank the Pavilion and, facing the Cour Napoléon, a large room that was fitted in the 1650s to be the Louvre Palace Chapel. This room, the , used to be of double height but was vertically partitioned in the 18th century to create space in the

. A 1915 project to restore the double height was left unimplemented. The room was used for exhibition of ancient bronze objects, then for temporary exhibitions from the 1990s to the 2010s, and since July 2016 has been dedicated to the history of the Louvre's collections. On its entrance door is a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

gate originally from the

Château de Maisons The Château de Maisons (now Château de Maisons-Laffitte ), designed by François Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French Baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture. The château is located in ...

, installed there in 1819 by architect Pierre Fontaine. On the second floor or attic, the main room above the former chapel has been devoted since 2016 to information about new developments at the Louvre and its two satellites in Lens, Northern France and Abu Dhabi, UAE. The third floor used to be a single large room extending all the way to the roof. From its completion in 1644 it was used to store furniture. In the 1850s, Hector-Martin Lefuel created a

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...

to bring light from the ceiling. This room was remodeled by Louvre architect around 1920, and the Louvre's pioneering collection of

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

was displayed there from June 1922. It was then known as , as a tribute to businessman Alphonse Delort de Gléon (1843–1899) and his wife Marie–Augustine (1852–1911), who bequeathed Islamic art pieces that joined the Louvre's collection in 1912. This room, however, was partitioned in 1979 to create reserve space for the Louvre's paintings collection, and further partitioned in the 2000s so that it now has four levels inside. The timber work supporting the roof is largely original from the 17th century. File:Debucourt-Louvre-facade-seen-from-rue-Fromenteau.jpg, Lemercier's western façade from the former rue Fromenteau, late 18th century File:Pavillon Sully Louvre 2007 06 23.jpg, Western façade of the Pavillon Sully, redesigned by Hector Lefuel File:Louvre covered passage, 5 April 2015.jpg, Covered passageway or of the Pavillon Sully

History

Interior

See also

Notes

Further reading