Passage de l’Opéra (Galerie de l’Horloge) (ninth arrondissement)

Iron and glass-covered shopping arcades known as passages were introduced in Paris in the late eighteenth century. Boasting
various shops with windows displaying luxury goods, the passages were often located near theaters and also offered restaurants and cafés. Skylights provided illumination during the day, while indoor gas lighting made nighttime socializing and commerce possible.
A mid-nineteenth-century guidebook described the arcade as “a city, a world in miniature, in which customers will find everything they need.” Although more than 140 covered passages were built, most were destroyed during the second half of the nineteenth century as shoppers gravitated toward the new grands magasins (large department stores) that offered a staggering proliferation of goods under a single roof.