Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy's oldest active shopping gallery and a major landmark of Milan. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the centre of town, the Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
The building under construction
The glass dome
A view of the shops and coffeehouses
An arcade is a succession of contiguous arches, with each arch supported by a colonnade of columns or piers. Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians; they include many loggias, but here arches are not an essential element. An arcade may feature arches on both sides of the walkway. Alternatively, a blind arcade superimposes arcading against a solid wall.
Norman blind arcade, Ely Cathedral
Arcades of the Colosseum (AD 70s) from the outside
Arcades inside the Mosque of Uqba, also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Tunisia (670). There is no vaulting; the arches are bridged by wooden beams
These arcades in Córdoba were begun in the 780s; Some are topped by beams, others by barrel vaults.
