Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert  The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries (, ) are an ensemble of glazed shopping arcades in central Brussels, Belgium. Designed and built by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer between 1846 and 1847, they precede other famous 19th-century European shopping arcades such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (Italy) and The Passage in St Petersburg (Russia). 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 Italianate Cinquecento style, under an arched glass-paned roof with a delicate cast-iron framework. The galleries were designed by the young architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer, who determined to sweep away a warren of ill-lit alleyways between / and / and replace a sordid space where the bourgeoisie scarcely ventured into with a covered shopping arcade more than in length. His idea, conceived in 1836, was finally authorised in February 1845. The partnership , in which the banker Jean-André Demot took an interest, was established by the summer, but nine years were required to disentangle all the property rights, assembled by rights of eminent domain, during a process that caused one property owner to die of a stroke and a barber, it was said, slit his throat as the adjacent house came down. Construction started on 6 May 1846. It lasted for 18 months, and the passage was inaugurated on 20 June 1847 by King Leopold and his two sons. In 1845, the named the three sections of the new passage the /, the / and the /. The ensemble, called the ("Saint-Hubert Passage") has borne its present name since 1965. Under its motto ("Everything for everybody"), displayed in the "fronton" of its palace-like facade, the Saint-Hubert Passage attracted people of fashion. Brilliantly lit, it offered the luxury of outdoor cafés in Brussels' inclement climate, in an ambiance of luxury retailers that brought to Brussels the true feel of a European capital. In the premises of daily newspaper, on 1 March 1896, the first public showing of moving pictures took place of the cinematographers Lumière, fresh from their initial triumph in Paris. A theatre inside the galleries, the "Théâtre des Galeries Saint-Hubert", was designed by Cluysenaer and opened 7 June 1847.