Cour Carrée

The Cour Carrée (French pronunciation: [kuʁ kaʁe], 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 Renaissance palace.

To reinforce this enclosure on the western side, he built the first incarnation of the Louvre, a large fortress with four high walls protected by a moat, towers, and a dungeon.

The King renovated the castle to make it more comfortable, installing numerous windows, adding chimneys, statues, turrets and gardens.

After Francis I's death, his son Henry II (1547–1559) continued the work and oversaw demolition of the west wall, which he replaced with a Renaissance palace of the same length between December 1546 and March 1549.

Henry II then demolished the southern wall to pave the way for the construction of the Pavillon du Roi from 1553 to 1556, located at the junction of the south and west wings.

He also planned to quadruple the size of the courtyard of the Louvre Castle by demolishing the old walls and extending the existing Renaissance wings.

After a contest launched by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the King decided in 1665 to have the Louvre Colonnade built outside on the east by Claude Perrault and Louis le Vau.

As the King did not have the power of expropriation, the work dragged on because it was necessary to buy the land and the houses in front of the future colonnade to clear the view.

The Republic[clarification needed] did not want to be outdone and installed a rooster in the pediment of the west façade of the central pavilion of the east wing.