Musée d'Orsay

Designed by architect Victor Laloux, the original station was completed in 1900 and features an ornate Beaux-Arts façade that harmonizes with the surrounding Haussmannian architecture. The interior originally boasted a massive iron-and-glass barrel vault, metal structures, and electric rails. For its conversion into a museum, the ACT architecture group was commissioned to remodel the building, while the interior layout was designed by Italian architect Gaetana Aulenti. Aulenti created a complex arrangement of galleries across three main levels surrounding the central nave, preserving the vast open space beneath the iconic vault.

The museum's collection focuses on painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and photography from the period 1848 to 1914. Notable holdings include Édouard Manet's 'Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe' (Luncheon on the Grass) and 'Olympia', Gustave Courbet's 'The Artist's Studio' and 'A Burial at Ornans', and Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 'Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette'. The museum also houses a significant collection of 19th-century sculpture, which was largely stored away in previous decades but was re-exhibited in the spacious nave upon the museum's opening. The Marlene and Spencer Hays Collection, donated in 2016, further enriches the Post-Impressionist holdings.

The Musée d'Orsay is globally significant for its unique architectural adaptation and its comprehensive presentation of the artistic transition from Realism to Modernism. By occupying a former railway station, the museum serves as a tangible link between industrial history and art history. It is one of the most visited art museums in the world, ranking as the sixth-most-visited art museum globally in 2022 with 3.2 million visitors. The institution plays a crucial role in preserving and displaying the cultural heritage of the Belle Époque and the revolutionary movements in art that defined the late 19th and early 20th centuries.