P237 - Italy - Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II , Milano, Italy




The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a covered double arcade formed of two glass-vaulted arcades at right angles intersecting in an octagon; it is prominently sited on the northern side of the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, and connects to the Piazza della Scala. Named after Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of united Italy, it was originally designed in 1861 and built by Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877.

The street is covered over by an arching glass and cast iron roof, a popular design for nineteenth-century arcades, such as the Burlington Arcade, London, which was the prototype for larger glazed shopping arcades, beginning with the Saint-Hubert Gallery in Brussels (opened 1847) and the Passazh in St Petersburg, (opened 1848) and including the Galleria Umberto in Naples (opened 1890).

The central octagonal space is topped with a glass dome. The Milanese Galleria was larger in scale than its predecessors and was an important step in the evolution of the modern glazed and enclosed shopping mall, of which it was the direct progenitor. It has inspired the use of the term galleria for many other shopping arcades and malls.

The Galleria connects two of Milan's most famous landmarks: The Duomo and the Teatro Alla Scala.

More than 130 years after its inauguration, the four-story arcade includes elegant shops selling most things from haute couture to books, as well as restaurants, cafés and bars. Directly connected to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Milan's ultra-luxurious Town House Galleria hotel, offering the city's most luxurious (and most expensive) rooms and facilities.

The Galleria is the site for many luxury goods' shops, like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton.

艾曼紐二世迴廊，位在在米蘭大教堂旁，於1865年由曼哥尼(Giuseppe Mengoni) 所設計，是以金屬和玻璃為主要建築結構，是為了慶祝米蘭擺脫外國勢力及新義大利王國的統一而興建。具有巴洛克及文藝復興風格的艾曼紐二世迴廊，現在是座華麗的商場，義大利人將它尊稱為『米蘭的客廳』( il salotto di Milamo) ，其氣派與華麗，像是整個米蘭的縮圖。商場內部是十字型的設計，走廊正中央有一個八角型的圓頂，分別是以馬賽克鑲嵌成歐洲、美洲、非洲、亞洲等四大洲之代表的畫，非常華麗卻又不失古典韻味。Gucci 、 Prada 、 Louis Vuitton …等世界名牌商店皆在其中，商品種類齊全，喜愛名牌的旅客，來到這裏絕對能夠盡情享受購物之樂。

References sources : Wikipedia, liontravel