The Grande Galerie, in the past also known as galerie du bord de l'eau (waterside gallery), is the largest room of the Louvre in Paris and one of its most iconic spaces. Initially built from 1595 on the initiative of King Henry IV as an elevated enclosed passageway linking the old Louvre Palace with the Tuileries Palace, it was used for various purposes until the creation of the Louvre Museum in 1793, when it became the exhibition gallery it remains to this day. Originally 460 meters long, it was reduced to its current length of 288 meters following the remodeling of its western section in the 1860s in the wake of Napoleon III's Louvre expansion.