Which Renaissance wing is the oldest standing part of the Louvre Palace?

The oldest standing part of the Louvre Palace is the Lescot Wing.

Pierre Lescot designed the wing during the reigns of Francis I and Henry II, as the medieval fortress was being transformed into a Renaissance palace. Construction began in the mid-1540s, and the wing was substantially completed by 1551. It forms the southwestern side of today’s Cour Carrée.

The Lescot Wing is easy to confuse with the Louvre’s modern visitor wings. The Denon and Richelieu wings are much later names for large 19th-century sections, while the Lemercier Wing extended the Renaissance work northward in the 17th century. The surviving medieval Louvre, whose foundations and moat can be visited underground, is older, but it is not a standing above-ground wing.

Its façade helped establish French Renaissance classicism, combining classical columns, pediments, sculpted decoration, and a steep French roof. Jean Goujon supplied much of the celebrated sculptural ornament, including the caryatids associated with the wing’s ceremonial hall.