Grande Galerie, Art gallery wing in 1st arrondissement, France.

The Grande Galerie is a 288-metre-long gallery in the Louvre Palace, its walls painted pale pink and its polished wooden floor running beneath a row of arched skylights set into the vaulted ceiling. Paired marble columns with gilded Corinthian capitals line both sides, and tall rectangular openings and doorways punctuate the walls. The windows were sealed and the skylights added between 1805 and 1810 by Percier and Fontaine.

Construction began in 1595 under Henry IV as a passage connecting the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace, led by architects Louis Metezeau and Jacques Androuet II du Cerceau. The original plan for a longer connection was altered during later renovations in the 1860s.

The space displays European paintings from various periods that form part of France's national collection, offering visitors insight into artistic developments across centuries. The arrangement of the works and the room design reflect how art has been valued and presented over time.

Access is through the main Louvre entrance, with metro stations Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre and Louvre-Rivoli located nearby. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes, as the long corridor requires significant walking to explore properly.

The room's western section was rebuilt in the 1860s under Napoleon III, cutting the gallery from 460 to 288 metres. The nine bays are divided by paired columns arranged like Venetian windows, a scheme Percier and Fontaine devised between 1805 and 1810 after Hubert Robert proposed sealing the windows and lighting the vault from above.