Salon Carré

[1] When the Grande Galerie was built in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a separate room was created at its eastern end above the lavishly decorated Salon des Ambassadeurs on the ground floor.

Louis Le Vau rebuilt it on an expanded footprint, including further space to the north that gave it more width and its current name, even though its plan is rectangular and not square.

[4] On 2 April 1810, Napoleon and Marie Louise of Austria led a procession from the Tuileries Palace throughout the Grande Galerie on the occasion of their wedding, which was celebrated in the Salon Carré, temporarily converted into a chapel.

The room was subsequently redecorated by architect Félix Duban, with sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart creating a richly decorated ceiling of gilded stucco celebrating past French artists, still in place.

In 1972, the Salon Carré's museography was remade with lighting from a hung tubular case, designed by Louvre architect Marc Saltet [fr] with assistance from designers André Monpoix [fr], Joseph-André Motte and Pierre Paulin.