Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert: The Birthplace of the Praline

Why is it significant?

Step beneath the arched Italianate entrance into the luminous, barrel-vaulted corridor of the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert.

Key Facts

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Step beneath the arched Italianate entrance into the luminous, barrel-vaulted corridor of the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. Inaugurated in eighteen forty-seven by King Leopold the First, this magnificent two-hundred-meter glass and cast-iron promenade was designed by young architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer, predating both Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and London's Burlington Arcade as a triumphant temple of bourgeois commerce.

The gallery is divided into three distinct wings: the Galerie du Roi, the Galerie de la Reine, and the smaller Galerie des Princes. Conceived as a luxurious covered boulevard where stylish citizens could shop, promenade, and converse without fear of rain, soot, or carriage splashes, it swiftly became the epicenter of Brussels' cultural, culinary, and literary life during the height of the industrial nineteenth century. The arcade's monumental glazed ceiling spans thirty feet across and soars three stories high, flooding the interior with natural daylight even on the gloomiest winter afternoons.

In eighteen fifty-seven, Swiss apothecary Jean Neuhaus established his shop inside the Galerie de la Reine, coating unpalatable medicinal pills in rich dark chocolate to make them easier to swallow. Half a century later, in nineteen twelve, his grandson Jean Neuhaus the Second had a moment of pure culinary genius: he replaced the medicine entirely with roasted almond and hazelnut cream, inventing the world's very first filled Belgian chocolate praline and launching a global confectionary revolution.

During the mid-nineteenth century, these polished marble storefronts served as an intellectual haven for French literary figures living in political exile from Napoleon the Third's regime. Victor Hugo strolled here daily while finishing his manuscript for Les Misérables, frequenting the Café des Vaudevilles alongside Alexandre Dumas and poet Charles Baudelaire, who debated politics over hot coffee and fresh brioche.

Exit the arcade at Rue des Bouchers, stroll past the Grand-Place, and proceed down Rue au Beurre toward the monumental Corinthian portico of the Bourse.