Louvre-Rivoli metro station (Line 1)

Set on Line 1 of the Paris metro, Louvre-Rivoli is one of the twenty-five stops along the very first route to cross the City of Light, several feet underground. Busy with both tourists and Parisians, it serves one of the capital's most famous landmarks and is widely used by those heading to the Louvre.

The station opened on August 13, 1900. It was originally named simply Louvre, after its proximity to the Louvre palace, whose entrance was through the Mansart colonnade until 1990. Once the museum's entrance was moved beneath the Pyramid, more easily reached from the Palais Royal station, a change of name was decided: Louvre became Louvre-Rivoli, while Palais Royal became Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre.

The station made headlines in 1992, when a group of taggers damaged it in search of media coverage to promote graffiti in Paris. 

At first, nothing set Louvre-Rivoli apart from any other Paris metro station. Its distinctive decoration dates from the late 1960s. A renovation carried out in 2016 added new sculptures and replaced an aging scheme with a more modern approach using contemporary materials. The benches, the signage panels, the artworks, and the lighting were all reworked so that the station would stand as one of the great cultural landmarks of the network.

Louvre-Rivoli now offers a setting worthy of a museum, with several remarkable sculptures and screenings of videos. The high-quality casts were produced by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux Grand Palais. If you are not in a hurry, take the time to step down and admire the details of the station while you wait for the next train, a cultural pause before you even leave the platform. 

Explore a selection of striking stations across the Paris metro, including Abbesses on Line 12, Opéra on Lines 3, 7, and 8, and Saint-Michel on Line 4.