The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries (Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert) are a covered shopping arcade under a long glass roof, running from the Grand Place area towards the cathedral quarter of Brussels. They opened in 1847, among the earliest grand shopping arcades in Europe, and Milan's famous Galleria was modelled on them. Inside you still find two theatres, a cinema, old cafés and the chocolatier Neuhaus, which has traded here since 1857.
The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries at a glance
- Where: in the old centre (the Îlot Sacré), between the Rue du Marché aux Herbes near the Grand Place and the Rue d'Arenberg, a few minutes' walk from Brussels Central Station.
- Built: 1846–1847; opened by King Leopold I on 20 June 1847.
- By: the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, with allegorical sculptures by Joseph Jaquet.
- What it is today: a public passage about 213 metres long with around 70 shops, cafés and restaurants, two theatres and a cinema, and flats and offices on the upper floors.
- Time needed: 20–30 minutes to stroll through, longer if you stop for coffee or chocolate.
An arcade built by shareholders
Cluysenaar came up with the idea in 1836: a grand covered street in place of a cluster of narrow old lanes, among them the Rue Saint-Hubert, which gave the galleries their name. Buying up the properties dragged on for years because of disputes over expropriation. The city council approved the plan in 1845, a public-private company of shareholders raised the money, and once work began on 6 May 1846 the building took only thirteen months. King Leopold I and his two sons opened it on 20 June 1847. The three sections had been named after the royal family a few months earlier: the King's Gallery, the Queen's Gallery and the smaller Princes' Gallery.
The galleries soon became a meeting place for Brussels society. The Royal Theatre of the Galleries opened in the King's Gallery in June 1847, and the Café des Arts, today's Taverne du Passage, counted Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Charles Baudelaire among its regulars. On 1 March 1896 the Lumière brothers' films were shown to a paying public here, in the premises of the newspaper La Chronique, and a plaque recalls the event. The galleries were listed as a protected monument in 1986, restored for their 150th anniversary in 1997, and have been on Belgium's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage since 2008.
What to look for
- The motto 'Omnibus omnia' ('Everything for everyone') on the pediment of the main entrance, a statement that the arcade was meant for the whole city.
- The glass barrel roof on its cast-iron frame, which lets daylight fall on three storeys of pink and ochre façades with columns and faux-marble panels, inspired by the palaces of Renaissance Italy.
- The slight bend where the Rue des Bouchers crosses the arcade. A colonnade marks the break between the King's and Queen's galleries, and the kink was designed to stop the long view from becoming monotonous.
- Neuhaus in the Queen's Gallery: Jean Neuhaus opened a pharmacy here in 1857, and his grandson created the filled chocolate praline in 1912. The shop is still in the arcade.
- The theatre entrances: the Royal Theatre of the Galleries in the King's Gallery and the Théâtre du Vaudeville in the Queen's Gallery, along with the Cinéma Galeries, built in 1939.
- The Tropismes bookshop in the Princes' Gallery, set inside a former café with mirrors and gilded decoration.
The arcade that inspired Milan
Cluysenaar borrowed ideas from the Galerie d'Orléans in Paris and a passage in Liège, but the scale was new: three full storeys under glass and a public street rather than a private shortcut. The model travelled. Giuseppe Mengoni's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, opened in 1867, was directly inspired by Brussels, and later arcades from Naples to Moscow followed. Locals gave their own arcade a practical nickname: the umbrella of Brussels, a dry walk through the old town on a rainy day.
Tips for your visit
- Come early in the morning for photos of the empty arcade and the long glass roof; by midday it fills with people walking between the Grand Place and the cathedral.
- For the classic view, stand at the Rue des Bouchers crossing and look along the gallery in either direction.
- In December the galleries are decorated for the Winter Wonders Christmas season, which makes them festive but busy. The Rue des Bouchers that crosses them is lined with restaurants whose staff call out to passers-by, so take your time choosing.
Nearby
- Grand Place: the square of guildhouses and the Gothic Town Hall, a couple of minutes' walk from the southern entrance.
- Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula: Brussels' Gothic cathedral with its twin towers, uphill from the northern end of the galleries.
- Manneken Pis: the small bronze boy on a street corner south of the Grand Place, often dressed in one of his hundreds of costumes.
See Brussels with World City Trail
Our Brussels scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around 3 hours, with about 60 minutes of walking. It includes the Grand Place, the Manneken Pis and the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Brussels.
Play the Brussels scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Brussels →
Play the outdoor escape game in Brussels →
Facts checked in October 2026.