Paris’s Most Stunning Covered Passages

Passage des Panoramas (1800)

Passage des Panoramas, built in 1799 in the 2nd arrondissement, is Paris’s oldest covered passage, stretching 133 meters. Named for its panoramic painting exhibitions by Robert Fulton, it was innovative with glazed roofing and gas lighting in 1817. It hosted stamp merchants, engravers, and restaurants.

Renovated in the 1830s by architect Jean-Louis Victor Grisart, it gained the Saint-Marc and Variétés galleries. The section near Boulevard Montmartre is more richly decorated than the southern part. The gallery is featured in Zola’s novel Nana.