Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Milan, Italy, 1877
Architect: Giuseppe Mengoni (1829 - 1877)
Around the time the Royal Greenhouses at Laeken were created, Italy was racing to catch up with the technological, scientific, and cultural advances reshaping the modern nation-state. Although Rome had become the political capital upon unification in 1871, Milan was the nation’s financial and industrial heart. Milan led in art, research, education, finance, and fashion and was fast attaining the cosmopolitan appeal of Paris or London. It is not surprising, then, that the most advanced technology would be employed not in a greenhouse but in a new venue for the shops and restaurants serving Milan’s rising middle class; thus the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was born.
The idea for the Galleria was first proposed in 1859 as a competition. Of 175 entries, Giuseppe Mengoni (1829-1877), who had received an engineering degree with honors from the University of Bologna and was an apprentice of the French engineer Jean Louis Protche (1818-1886), proved invaluable for the task of working out the complex calculations. In March of 1865 they broke ground on the Galleria and in 1877, just one year before the first glass and metal arcade was erected in Leeds, England, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was completed.
When you enter through the triumphal stone arch into the virtual cathedral, it is a thrilling sight. As Alan and Nancy explain in their book, The Conservatory: Gardens Under Glass, with soaring spaces, intricate ironwork details, and magnificent mosaic floors, two glass-vaulted arcades cover the street connecting the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza della Scala to meet at a 57-foot high octagonal dome whose internal diameter measures 123 feet! One of the many unique features of the build of this conservatory is how they hid the use of tie rods to span the arches and domes, rendering the composition weightless and ethereal.
Today, the Galleria is still known as the address of the city’s most exclusive and expensive shops, as well as some of its finest dining in all of Italy.
Photo Credits: Alan Stein (Heading Image)