TheGalleria Vittorio Emanuele IIis a doublearcadein the center ofMilan,Italy. The structure is formed by two glass-vaulted arcades intersecting in anoctagoncovering the street connectingPiazza del Duomoto Piazza della Scala.
TheGalleriais named afterVittorio Emanuele II, the first king of theKingdom of Italy. It was originally designed in 1861 and built byGiuseppe Mengonibetween 1865 and 1877.
The street is covered by an arching glass andcast ironroof, a popular design fornineteenth-centuryarcades, such as theBurlington ArcadeinLondon, which was the prototype for larger glazedshopping arcades, beginning with theSaint-Hubert GalleryinBrussels(opened in 1847), thePassazhinSt Petersburg(opened in 1848), theGalleria Umberto IinNaples(opened in 1890) and theBudapestGalleria.
The central octagonal space is topped with a glassdome. The MilaneseGalleriawas larger in scale than its predecessors and was an important step in the evolution of the modern glazed and enclosedshopping mall, of which…