Pompidou Centre

Pompidou Centre

 or Beaubourg Centre

French national cultural centre, on the rue Beaubourg in the Marais section of Paris. Its full name, the Georges Pompidou National Art and Cultural Centre, recognizes the president of the Republic under whose administration it was commissioned. When formally opened in 1977, the building attracted notoriety for its brightly coloured exterior pipes, ducts, and other exposed architectural elements, and it soon became one of the most visited cultural sites in the world. Though primarily a museum for 20th-century visual arts, it also houses temporary exhibitions, a library, a centre for industrial design, a film museum, and a Centre for Musical and Acoustical Research.