The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries (French: Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, Dutch: Koninklijke Sint-Hubertusgalerijen) is an ensemble of three glazed shopping arcades in central Brussels, Belgium. It consists of the Galerie du Roi or Koningsgalerij (“King’s Gallery”), the Galerie de la Reine or Koninginnegalerij (“Queen’s Gallery”) and the Galerie des Princes or Prinsengalerij (“Princes’ Gallery”). The galleries were designed and built by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer between 1846 and 1847, and precede other famous 19th-century European shopping arcades, such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and The Passage in Saint Petersburg. Like them, they have twin regular facades with distant origins in Vasari‘s long narrow street-like courtyard of the Uffizi in Florence, with glazed arched shopfronts separated by pilasters and two upper floors, all in an ItalianateCinquecento style, under an arched glass-paned roof with a delicate cast-iron framework. The complex was designated a historic monument in 1986.
The galleries are located in the block between the Rue du Marché aux Herbes/Grasmarkt and the Rue de la Montagne/Bergstraat to the south and east, the Rue d’Arenberg/Arenbergstraat and the Rue de l’Ecuyer/Schildknaapsstraat to the north, and the Rue des Dominicains/Predikherenstraat and the Rue des Bouchers/Beenhouwersstraat to the west. This site is served by Brussels Central Station.
The Royal Galleries consist of two major sections, each more than 100 metres (330 feet) in length (respectively called the Galerie du Roi/Koningsgalerij, meaning “King’s Gallery”, and the Galerie de la Reine/Koninginnegalerij, meaning “Queen’s Gallery”), and a smaller side gallery (the Galerie des Princes/Prinsengalerij, meaning “Princes’ Gallery”). The main sections (King and Queen’s Gallery) are separated by a colonnade at the point where the Rue des Bouchers/Beenhouwersstraat crosses the gallery complex. At this point, there is a discontinuity in the straight perspective of the galleries. This “bend” was introduced purposefully in order to make the long perspective of the galleries, with its repetition of arches, pilasters and windows, less tedious.
The Galerie du Roip stretches from the Rue des Bouchers to the Rue d’Arenberg/Arenbergstraat. It notably houses the Royal Theatre of the Galleries.
The Galerie de la Reine, to the south, leads to the Rue du Marché aux Herbes/Grasmarkt, near the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels’ main square), and on the other side of this street begins the Horta Gallery. Its best known shops are Delvaux leather goods and Neuhauschocolatier.
The Galerie des Princes is located perpendicularly between the Galerie du Roi and the Rue des Dominicains/Predikherenstraat.
