[1] The gallery was built in 1823 by Marchoux, President of the Chamber of Notaries, at the location of the Hôtel Vanel de Serrant and the Passage des Petits-Pères [fr].

Located between the Palais-Royal, the Paris Bourse (stock exchange) and the Grands Boulevards, the passage enjoyed considerable success until the end of the Second Empire.

But the gallery lost some of its appeal with the move of the prestigious shops to the Madeleine and the Champs-Élysées, and particularly because of the renovation of Paris by Georges-Eugène Haussmann.

[10][11][12] François-Jacques Delannoy conceived the decor in neo-classical Pompeian style covered with an elegant canopy, with mosaics, paintings and sculptures exalting trade.

The 42 metres (138 ft) long gallery is sheltered by a glazed rotunda with a hemispherical glass dome that allows for air circulation.