Initiated by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer, the spectacular Galeries Royales project took shape in the 1830's. The works, begun in 1846, were almost completed in time for the official opening on 20 June 1847.The gallery included shops, auditoriums, restaurants and apartments. The colony of French refugees, like Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Edgar Quinet and others, would also gather there. The Surrealist painters and artists from the Cobra group were regulars at the venue.A commemorative plaque recalls the first showing of the Lumiére brothers’ motion picture camera on 1 March 1896, in the former dispatch room of the La Chronique daily newspaper.