Centre Georges Pompidou

Centre Georges Pompidou (also known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture.

It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as the Beaubourg . It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who decided its creation, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.

Read more about Centre Georges Pompidou:  The Inception, Exhibitions, Stravinsky Fountain, Place Georges Pompidou, Use in Film and Television, Public Transport

Famous quotes containing the words centre and/or pompidou:

    Him, the vindictive rod of angry justice
    Sent, quick and howling, to the centre headlong;
    I, fed with judgements,in a fleshy tomb, am
    Buried above ground.
    William Cowper (1731–1800)

    There are three roads to ruin; women, gambling and technicians. The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with technicians.
    —Georges Pompidou (1911–1974)