The Centre Pompidou
Paris,
France
The Centre Pompidou, or the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou (translated as the National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), is a complex structure situated in the Beaubourg neighborhood of Paris's 4th arrondissement, close to Les Halles, rue Montorgueil, and the Marais. It follows the high-tech architectural style and was designed by the team of Richard Rogers, Su Rogers, Renzo Piano, and Gianfranco Franchini.
The facility comprises the Bibliothèque publique d'information (Public Information Library), an extensive public library; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, the largest museum of modern art in Europe; and IRCAM, a center for music and acoustic research. The local populace refers to it as Beaubourg because of its location. It was named after Georges Pompidou, France's President from 1969 to 1974, who initiated its construction, and was officially opened on January 31, 1977, by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
In 2021, the center drew 1.5 million visitors, a 65 percent increase from the previous year but a significant decline from 2019 due to COVID-related closures. Since its opening in 1977, it has welcomed over 180 million visitors, with more than 5,209,678 visitors in 2013, including 3,746,899 for the museum.
In 2012, the sculpture Horizontal by Alexander Calder, a 7.6 m (25 ft) tall free-standing mobile, was erected in front of the Centre Pompidou.