Centre Pompidou

As Europe's largest modern art gallery, visitors can enjoy over 50,000 works of art and masterpieces by Picasso, Duchamp, Ernst and Miró.

Visit the Le Centre Pompidou with The Paris Pass®

• You can visit this attraction with the digital Paris Museum Pass. Please download it before you visit!
• Explore Europe's largest dedicated museum for modern art
• See works by some of the world's most famous artists
• Marvel at the architecture of the building's unique structure

As the largest and most important museum of modern art in Europe, and one of the most renowned in the world, Centre Pompidou is a must-see attraction when you’re visiting Paris. Featuring the late 19th-20th century art, explore its collections and galleries featuring over 50,000 works, including movements from Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

The building itself is also an architectural masterpiece as it features all of its internal facilities – air conditioning, elevators and pipework – on its façade!

Centre Pompidou Highlights:

• 50,000 works of art, including paintings, sculpture, drawings and photography
• Masterpieces by Picasso, Duchamp, Ernst and Miró among many others
• Photography exhibition displaying works by Man Ray and Doisneau
• 5,000 artists’ works in total
• Impressive views over Paris from the upper-floor restaurant

Did you know:

• A competition to design the building was set to the Parisian public and 650 entries were received
• Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the architects who designed the building in the 1970s, were basically unknown before the success of the Centre Pompidou
• Many French people didn’t (and still don’t) like the appearance of the building and compare it to a boiler house or an oil refinery
• Although the Centre Pompidou is an art gallery, its two libraries span over three floors
• The visitor numbers have multiplied by 5 from what the building was originally meant to accommodate; from 5,000 to 25,000 per day

Must Visits at Le Centre Pompidou

Exhibitions

There are many rooms that sprawl over the six floors in the Centre Pompidou where you can explore all the modern art movements from Dadaism, Fauvism, Cubism and Expressionism. Perfect for art lovers with more unconventional tastes, the collections are made up of interactive videos and visuals, to prints and murals.

Stravinsky Fountain

Between Le Centre Pompidou and the Church of Saint-Merri sits the Stravinsky Fountain, a whimsical brightly coloured fountain depicting sixteen works of sculpture, incorporating free running water that represents The Rite of Spring by the composer Igor Stravinsky. Created by sculptors Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle in 1983 it’s one of Paris’ most iconic fountains (if not slightly bizarre) but true to its modern art influences fits perfectly in its location.

Library

The library in Centre Pompidou actually has two libraries; first the Public Information Library, accessible to the public, and free of charge; and second, the Kandinsky library, which focuses on the research and documentation relating to modern art. They’re both a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to indulge in a bit of research or just to have a look around the vast collections of information.