Paris · Beaubourg, 4th arrondissement · Closed until 2030
Centre Pompidou: Closed for Renovation Until 2030
Paris's inside-out modern art museum shut its doors in autumn 2025 for a five-year rebuild. Here is what that means for your trip, and what is still worth seeing on the spot.
By the AllTrips Editorial Team ·
Visitor alert
The museum, exhibition floors, library and rooftop are closed. There are no tickets to buy for 2026. Only the outside of the building and the surrounding square can be visited.
Centre Pompidou at a glance
Area: Beaubourg, 4th arrondissement (Place Georges-Pompidou). Allow: 15–25 minutes for the exterior and the square. Entry: closed to visitors; exterior free. Nearby: Musée Picasso, Musée Carnavalet and Place des Vosges.
Opened in 1977, the Centre Pompidou holds one of the two largest modern art collections in the world alongside MoMA. For this trip, though, treat it as a piece of architecture to walk past rather than a museum to plan a morning around.
Why it is closed
The building's levels closed progressively through 2025, and the renovation work itself began in early 2026. The technical programme covers complete asbestos removal from the façades, corrosion treatment on the main steel structure, fire safety, step-free accessibility and energy performance — work that could not be done floor by floor around visitors.
A parallel cultural project, led by the architects Moreau Kusunoki with Frida Escobedo Studio, will rethink how the collection is displayed and how the library sits inside the building. The Centre Pompidou plans to reopen in 2030.
What you can still see
The exterior. The whole point of the building is on the outside: the structural frame, the diagonal escalator tubes and the colour-coded services — blue for air, green for water, yellow for electricity, red for movement and circulation.
The piazza. The sloping cobbled square in front of the building is public space and stays open. It is a natural pause point between Les Halles and the Marais.
The Stravinsky Fountain. Just south of the building, the Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely fountain of moving, spraying coloured sculptures is free and always visible.
What you cannot do: go up the escalators, see the collection, use the library, eat at the rooftop restaurant or take in the panorama over Paris. Those all return with the building.
Where the collection is now
During the closure the Centre Pompidou runs a touring programme called Constellation, showing works through partner venues in France and internationally, so individual masterpieces surface in temporary exhibitions elsewhere. A new conservation, exhibition and creation hub, the Centre Pompidou Francilien, is due to open at Massy in the Île-de-France in spring 2027.
The Bibliothèque publique d'information left Beaubourg in March 2025 and reopened in August 2025 at the Lumière building, 40 avenue des Terroirs de France in the 12th arrondissement, where it stays until 2030.
If modern and contemporary art is the reason you came to Paris, the working substitutes are the Bourse de Commerce for contemporary work, the Musée Picasso for the early modern period, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris beside the Palais de Tokyo.
Official site
Centre Pompidou 2025–2030
The museum's own page on the closure, the renovation timetable and the Constellation programme of exhibitions at partner venues.
Read the official updateThe building explained
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers won the 1971 competition with a deliberately provocative idea: push every pipe, duct, lift and staircase to the outside so that the interior could be wide-open, flexible floors. Parisians were appalled at first — "the refinery", critics called it — and the building is now one of the most recognisable in the city.
Reading the colours is the easiest way to enjoy it from the square: blue ducts carry air, green pipes water, yellow casings electrical cabling, and red marks everything people move through, including the escalators and lifts.
Getting there
The nearest metro stations are Rambuteau (line 11) and Hôtel de Ville (lines 1 and 11), with Châtelet–Les Halles a short walk west. The square is open at all hours; the surrounding streets of the Marais are the reason most people are in the area anyway.
The Centre Pompidou in photos
What is nearby?
The Marais begins a couple of streets east: the Musée Picasso, the free Musée Carnavalet and Place des Vosges together make a good half-day. See how it all fits together on our Paris attractions map.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Centre Pompidou open in 2026?
No. The Beaubourg building closed to the public in autumn 2025 for a full renovation, and the Centre Pompidou plans to reopen it in 2030. You can still walk the piazza and see the exterior.
Why did the Centre Pompidou close?
The renovation removes asbestos from the façades, treats corrosion on the structure, improves fire safety and accessibility, and upgrades energy performance. The scale of the work required closing the whole building.
Where can I see the Pompidou collection while it is closed?
The Centre Pompidou is running a programme called Constellation, lending works and staging exhibitions with partner venues in France and abroad. Check the official site for the current schedule before planning around it.
What happened to the public library (Bpi)?
The Bibliothèque publique d'information left Beaubourg in March 2025 and reopened in August 2025 at the Lumière building, 40 avenue des Terroirs de France in the 12th arrondissement. It is due back at the Centre Pompidou in 2030.
Is it still worth walking past?
Yes, if you are already in the Marais or at Les Halles. The exterior is one of the most influential buildings of the 20th century, and the sloping piazza and the Stravinsky Fountain beside it are free and always open.
Official sources
- Centre Pompidou — 2025–2030, Centre Pompidou is transforming itself
- Bibliothèque publique d'information — Bpi's relocation
Reviewed September 2026. Reopening plans can shift; check the official site before travel.