L'OUVEBTURE 23 LOUYS tiful flamboyant rood-loft, a -wrought- iron chandelier by Quentin Matsys, and some good pictures; St. Gertrude's Church possessing the finest carved oak stalls in Belgium; and the Weavers' Hall (1317), appropriated by the university in 1679. In 891 King Arnulf gained here a great victory over the Northmen, and built a castle against them; it used to be known as Caesar's Castle; a few fragments of it still remain. In the 14th century the town was rich, prosperous, and large (200,000 inhabitants), due to its cloth manufactures and its position as the capital of Brabant (from 994). In 1382 the townsmen revolted against their rulers, and the harsh punishment meted out to them drove large numbers away to England. The old walls, form- ing a circuit of 5 miles, have been de- molished. A severe blow was struck at the prosperity of Louvain by a terrible visitation of the plague in the 16th cen- tury. Fop. about 40,000. The Germans captured the city Aug. 19, 1914, and held it for six days when forced out by Belgian troops. Re-taken by the Germans, the city was fired and the university, library and other im- portant buildings reduced to ruins. L'OTTVERTTJRE, TOTJSSAINT. See TOUSSAINT L'OVERTURE. LOirVOIS (lo-vwa), FRANCSOIS MICHEL LE TELIilER, MARQUIS DE, the war-minister of Louis XIV.; bom in Paris, France, Jan. 18, 1641. His father was Chancellor and Secretary of State in the war department; the son joined him as assistant-secretary in 1662, and became war-minister in 1668. In the drilling of the armies he had a ready agent in Martinet, whose name is not yet forgotten in military life. His labors bore their fruit in the great war that ended with the peace of Nimeguen (1678). During the following years Louvois took a leading part in the cap- ture of Strassburg, in 1681. He died suddenly July 16, 1691. LOUVRE, the name of a celebrated public building of Paris, situated in the N. part of the city, near the right bank of the Seine. It was originally a hunt- ing lodge, and later a castle, begun about 1204. Charles V. (1364-1380) added some embellishments to it, and brought thither his library and his treasury; and Fran- cis, in 1528, erected that part of the palace which is now known as the gallery of Apollo. Henry IV. laid the foundation of the gallery which connects the Louvre on the S. side with the Tuileries. Louis XIII. erected the center; and Louis XIV., according to the plan of the physician Perrault, the elegant facade toward the E., together with the colonnade of the Louvre. When the great number of works of art seized in Italy by the armies of Napoleon made it necessary to assign a proper place for their reception, the architect Raimond was selected to con- duct the work. After the Restoration the work was again brought to a stand- still; and nothing was done till after the revolution of 1848. A resolution having been passed by the provisional govern- ment in favor of the completion of the whole building, the foundation-stone of the new Louvre was laid July 25, 1852, and the work completed in 1857, at a cost of nearly 6,000,000 francs. The Louvre now consists of two parts — the old and new Louvre. The former is nearly a square, 576 feet long and 538 wide, and inclosing a quadrangle of about 400 feet square; its E. fagade, looking toward the church of St. Ger- main I'Auxerrois, is a colonnade of 28 Corinthian columns, and one of the finest works of architecture of any age or country. The new Louvre consists of two vast lateral piles of buildings, pro- jecting at right angles from the two parallel galleries, which formerly joined the old Louvre with the Tuileries and formed the E. boundary of the Place du Carrousel. Turning into the Place Napoleon III. they present on each side a frontage of 590 feet, intersected by three sumptuous pavilions intended to accommodate the minister of state, the minister of the interior, and the library of the Louvre. Some of the galleries on the upper stories are set apart for permanent and annual exhibitions of works of art. The total space covered or inclosed by the Louvre is nearly 60 acres. During the World War the chief art treasures were removed from the Louvre and concealed, and elaborate precautions were taken to prevent its injury or destruction by German air- raiders. LOirS'S, PIERRE, bom in 1870, was educated at the Lycee Janson de Sailly. He made a number of journeys to north Africa and founded at 19 the review "La Conque," to which Swinburne, Ver- laine, Leconte de Lisle, and Maeterlinck contributed. His novel "Aphrodite," from which ten plays and operas have been drawn in various languages, reached a sale of 320,000 copies. M. Louys's works are: "Astarte" (1892) ; "Les Chan- sons de Bilitis" (1895); "Aphrodite" (1896) ; "La Femme et le Pantin" (1898) ; "Les Aventures du Roi Pausole" (1901); "Saneuines" (1903); "Archipel" (1906); "Psyche" (1909).
