Passage des Panoramas | |
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General information | |
Type | Gallery |
Town or city | Paris |
Country | France |
Coordinates | 48°52′16″N 2°20′30″E / 48.87111°N 2.34167°E |
Opened | 1799 |
The Passage des Panoramas is the oldest of the covered passages of Paris, located in the 2nd arrondissement between the Boulevard Montmartre to the north and the Rue Saint-Marc to the south. It is one of the earliest venues of the Parisian philatelic trade, and it was one of the first covered commercial passageways in Europe. Bazaars and souks in the Orient had roofed commercial passageways centuries earlier, but the Passage de Panoramas innovated in having glazed roofing and, later on, in 1817, gas lights for illumination. It was an ancestor of the city gallerias of the 19th century and the covered suburban and city shopping malls of the 20th century.