Omnia omnibus, or everything for everyone, it says above the entrance to the Galeries Saint-Hubert in Brussels. It is almost true.
This stunning arcade built in 1846 was a place where you could find everything you needed. Not only shops, but theatres, cafés, restaurants and even apartments.
The Saint Hubert Arcade is still a place where everyone can find everything. Here you can buy the best Italian gloves, drink strong espresso coffee, take away a box of Belgian chocolates, watch an Iranian movie, buy a French novel, eat croquettes aux crevettes and drink a Belgian beer.
The Galeries have witnessed many historic moments since they first opened. The poet Pault Verlaine shot his friend Arthur Rimbaud with a gun bought in the Galeries. The Lumière brothers came here to screen the first moving pictures in Belgium. And the Swiss chemist Jean Neuhaus invented the Belgian praline chocolate in his shop in the arcade.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
