The passage | ©Velvet / CC-BY-SAPommeraye was a young and very rich notary who decided to finance the construction, between 1841 and 1843.
The main difficulties architects Buron and Hippolyte Durand-Gasselin met was the strong gradient of the soil (9 metres). They had to fill it! Our passage was composed of 3 glass galleries, 44 metres long and 4 metres large. We had more than 20 shops here!
This passage linked rue de la Fosse and rue de Crébillon, thanks to 3 galleries: the first one, called galerie de la Fosse, was the simplest one. The two other ones were beautiful, with a Renaissance decoration, and this huge staircase with 54 bronze stairs. In the first gallery, look!
Medallions, with portraits of famous people from Nantes, sculpted by Guillaume Grootaers: Constable Olivier V de Clisson, Pierre Abélard...
Grootaers was a Belgian sculptor from Nantes: he made the fountain in place Royale, here! The gallery opened for the first time in June 1843: people loved it! But Pommeraye was ruined and suddenly died, he was 44 years old...