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A weekly column published in the Wall Street Journal. Experts analyze masterpieces from the fields of literature, cinema, music, art and architecture
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In 1879, the American author Mark Twain sailed home from Europe with a manuscript that was almost ready for publication. The book, titled “Vagabond in a Foreign Country,” included the author’s musings on southern Germany, the French and Swiss Alps, and the cities of northern Italy. In Milan, Twain wrote, he spent most of his time in “an arcade (a structure with covered passageways in a succession of arches) or this big beautiful gallery, or whatever you call it.”
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“Blocks of new buildings of the most ambitious type, richly ornamented and adorned with statues. The streets between the buildings with high glass roofs, the sidewalks smooth and made of marble, are arranged in beautiful patterns,” Twain wrote. “I would like to live there all the time.”
Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery
Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery
architect: Giuseppe Mangoni
Location: Milan, Italy
Designation: passage
style: Neo-Renaissance
Year of construction: 1865-1877
Hanukkah year: 1867
height: 47 meters
Area: About 18 thousand meters (the entire building)
Gallery interior: marble floor and glass dome
Twain described the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a four-sided indoor arcade rising to a height of 39 meters and topped by a vaulted glass ceiling. About 150 years after the construction was completed, the gallery remains almost unchanged to this day; A glittering monument to the “Bel Epoque” period and a stage for peddlers of luxury goods, restaurants, cafes, decorative arts and pedestrians.
From above, the gallery looks like a Latin cross, with the main, longer arcade, crossed by a shorter arcade. The four wings meet in an octagonal square, which is topped by a glass dome with a circumference of 39 meters and a height of 47 meters above the colorful marble and mosaic floor. At each end of the cross is an arched, tall entrance that allows pedestrian traffic.
What distinguishes this gallery from other glass covered buildings, those built before or after it, is its large volume, inviting design and decorative touches. When you enter the gallery, you are amazed by the arched glass in the ceiling and the five-story facades along the two arcades.
During the day, the place is bathed in natural light, while at night, ball-shaped lamps illuminate it in lemon-yellow hues. The decorative art in the place includes lunettes (an architectural element in the shape of a crescent, located between the arch and the door) paintings, mosaic murals, sculptures, and a variety of other decorations.
The palace that inspired the establishment of the gallery
The idea of establishing a glass-covered commercial market was born in Paris in 1798 with the “Passage du Caire”. Then the Burlington Arcade in London (1819), the Vivian Gallery in Paris (1823), the Royal Saint-Ouverre Gallery in Brussels (1847) and the Passage in St. Petersburg (1848) were built.
The “Crystal Palace” in London, designed by the architect Joseph Paxton, was completed in preparation for the “Great Exhibition” in 1851, the first world exhibition for industrial products. The building combined iron frames, concrete, and cast glass.
The grand scale of the Crystal Palace inspired the ambitious scope of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
From the first moment, the gallery was an architectural marvel. About 350 tons of French iron and cast iron were used for the exposed arched beams that formed the vault and supported the weight of the glass panels. The gallery look is heavy and light at the same time. It combines a cave-like feeling, like in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with the boulevard charm you feel when you walk down the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The beginning of the construction of the project in the shadow of a lack of funding
Milan decided to establish a large commercial space in 1861, when Vittorio Emanuele II became the first king of a united Italy since the sixth century. Initially, the city held a lottery to raise funds, but the revenue was too low.
Meanwhile, the architectural competition opened in 1862, and Giuseppe Mangoni won it in 1863. Mangani, who was 33 years old at the time, made a bold proposal – to destroy the existing neighborhood in favor of his architectural vision: a large commercial space protected from the forces of nature by glass.
In 1864 the project still lacked funding. The city received financial assistance and engineering advice from a London company, which insisted that the project be completed within two years. Mangoni went to work and installed the foundations of the gallery in March 1865. He employed about 1,000 laborers on a daily basis to complete the construction on time.
The bitter fate of the architect of the project
When the gallery opened in September 1867, the king graced the opening with his presence. The king’s praise gave Mangoni motivation to work on a triumphal arch that would frame the gallery’s main entrance from the Cathedral Square. However, nine years later, in 1876, he received from the Milan municipality an extension of only one year to complete the arch.
Increasing pressure, personal debts and self-doubt left Mangoni desperate. On December 30, 1877 – the evening before the entrance was inaugurated – Mangoni climbed the scaffolding of the arch and slipped. Or maybe leapt to his death.
Ten days later, the king after whom the gallery is named died of pneumonia. When the arch was finally dedicated in February 1878, the new entrance that completed the gallery was praised by critics and enthusiastically received by townspeople and tourists, including Mark Twain.
Today, after midnight, when the passages in the gallery are eerily empty and quiet, it is easy to remember Mangoni, that this space swallowed up his life, and the king who never got to witness the project in its entirety. At such a late hour, the gallery looks like an empty theater, patiently waiting for the daily public drama to begin again, the next day, at sunrise.