The covered passages of Paris () are an early form of
shopping arcade
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 esse ...
built in
Paris, France
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, primarily during the first half of the 19th century. By 1867, there were approximately 183
covered passages in Paris but many were demolished during
Haussmann's renovation of Paris
Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works programme commissioned by French Emperor Napoleon III and directed by his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval ...
. Only 25 survived into the 21st century, all but one are in the
arrondissements (municipal districts) on the
Right Bank
In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water.
Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography.
In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...
of the Seine.
The common characteristics of the covered passages is that they link at least two streets, have glass ceilings and are
pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...
ised, artificially illuminated at night (initially with
gas lamps), privately owned, highly ornamented and decorated, and lined with small shops on the ground floor. The passages’ upper floors usually had apartments.
Originally, to keep the ''passages'' clean, each would have at the entrance an ''artiste de décrottage'' (a ‘shoe cleaning artist’).
From a cultural standpoint, the ''passages'' have served as centers of social interaction:
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...
frequented the
Galerie Vérot-Dodat when visiting a famous actress.
, the father of criminology and of the French police system, lived in the
Galerie Vivienne in 1840.
As a child,
Louis-Ferdinand Céline lived in the
Passage Choiseul.
The ''passages ''were the subject of Walter Benjamin's incomplete magnum-opus ''
Das Passagen-Werk'' (''Arcades Project'') which was posthumously published.
They should be distinguished from other Parisian roads also called ''passages'' but whose route runs in the open air.
List of currently accessible passages
The following table lists the covered passages that still exist and remain accessible to the public.
Further reading
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References
External links
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{{Visitor attractions in Paris