Tourist attractions in Paris : Musée d'Orsay

Located in the center of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the Musee d'Orsay was originally a railway station. It was inaugurated after two years of construction for the World Fair on July 14th, 1900. 

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From 1900 to 1939, the Gare d'Orsay was the head of the southwestern French railroad network. However, after 1939, the station was to serve only the suburbs, as its platforms had become too short for the modern, longer trains that appeared with the progressive electrification of the railroads.The Gare d'Orsay then successively served different purposes. Part of it became a mailing center for sending packages to prisoners of war during the Second World War. 

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In 1975, installation of a new museum in the train station was suggested by the Directorate of the Museums of France, in which all of the arts from the second half of the 19th century could be represented. The plan was accepted by the Prime Minister, Georges Pompidou and the station has finally survived from destruction and replacement by a hotel complex.

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Afterwards it was classified as a historical monument in 1978 and a competition was organized to design the new museum. A team of three young architects (Pierre Colboc, Renaud Bardon and Jean-Paul Philippon), were awarded the contract which involved creating 20,000 sq.m. of new floorspace on four floors. In 1981, the Italian architect, Gae Aulenti was chosen to design the interior of the museum. It was opened to the public by the President of the Republic, François Mitterrand on December 1986.

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Today, Musée d'Orsay displays mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by famous painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh.

Text Sources: musee-orsay.fr  and  wikipedia.org