Prada Galleria opened in Milan in September, on the spot where Mario Prada opened his first shop in 1913. The house now occupies both sides of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II beneath the central dome, the women’s boutique facing the men’s, and every floor above the men’s store: a permanent exhibition, a private apartment, rooms for appointments, the pastry shop Marchesi 1824 and, at the level of the glass roof, the Osservatorio of Fondazione Prada. A new tunnel under the arcade joins the two sides. Reuters counted eight levels in all. Here is what Prada has built, what the group says it is for, and how a shop for travelling trunks became a small city inside the Galleria.
Both sides of the dome
Prada announced the project on 22 June in five sentences. They are worth reading as written. The group’s release described “a multi-floor” destination on “the site of the original 1913 Fratelli Prada boutique”, comprising “the women’s and men’s stores, Marchesi 1824, Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, an exclusive private client salon and an exhibition dedicated to the history and future of the brand”. It went on: “The project spans both sides of the Galleria beneath the central dome, with Prada Donna facing Prada Uomo, and extends upward to occupy every level above the latter. The Prada Donna boutique will be enlarged, and the two stores will be linked by a new underground passage.” The timing followed the calendar. Prada opened Milan Fashion Week for the first time on Tuesday 22 September, with its show at two in the afternoon; the Galleria’s opening cocktail followed at half past five, and the public came in the next morning, Wednesday 23 September, as Milano Finanza reported.
Pradasphere, Appartamento, Studio
The new microsite names eight spaces, and four of them are new to Milan. Pradasphere is a permanent exhibition, which Prada describes as “exploring the Prada universe through archival pieces, design and culture”. Milano Finanza counted nine rooms, running from 1913 to the space suits, and visitors register in advance, according to Travel Tomorrow. The Appartamento is “an intimate private space where Prada’s world unfolds through art, design and personal expression”; Reuters described an apartment for private dinners and special events, and Travel Tomorrow reported that it currently shows works selected by Andreas Gursky. The Studio is a series of rooms for personal shopping appointments and private events, according to Travel Tomorrow. And under the floor of the arcade runs the Passaggio Segreto, “the underground passage connecting the spaces of the palazzo”. On the opening day it held silver-plated Prada bags reworked by Damien Hirst, Reuters reported. The two boutiques, Prada Donna and Prada Uomo, carry ready-to-wear, leather goods and accessories, and the women’s store, at numbers 63 to 65, is open every day.
Marchesi 1824 and the Osservatorio under the glass
Two of the eight spaces were already there. They explain how long Prada has been assembling this address. Pasticceria Marchesi, founded in Milan in 1824 by the Marchesi family, joined the Prada Group in 2014; its first shop under the new owners opened on Via Monte Napoleone, at number 9, and the Galleria café followed in 2016, on a mezzanine in the building of the men’s store. Prada now presents it as part of the Galleria: “Two centuries of Milanese pastry tradition.” Higher up, Fondazione Prada opened the Osservatorio in 2016, its space for photography and visual culture, with a first exhibition called Give Me Yesterday. The foundation places it “across the fifth and sixth floors of one of the main buildings of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II”, above the central octagon, “at the level of the glass and iron dome that covers the arcades”, with 800 square metres of exhibition space on two levels. Hito Steyerl’s The Island is on show there until 30 October.
1913, 1919, 2015: the dates behind the address
The story is short. Its consequences are not. “Prada was founded in Milan in 1913 by Mario Prada, Miuccia Prada’s grandfather,” the house writes, as “an exclusive shop selling luxury travel articles and accessories”. The mahogany shelving in that first shop was commissioned by Mario Prada from a British architect, and it still holds bags, trunks and beauty cases. In 1919 Prada became Official Supplier to the Italian Royal Household and took the House of Savoy’s coat of arms and knotted rope into its logo. The house’s commitment to the building itself goes back more than a decade. Between March 2014 and April 2015 Prada took part in the restoration of the Galleria, with Versace and a contribution from Feltrinelli, under the direction of the Municipality of Milan. The original shop, Prada says, “has kept its ancient flavour”. The new one has kept the address and added everything above it.
What the group says the Galleria is for
Andrea Guerra, the Prada Group’s chief executive, gave Reuters the rationale on 16 September, a week before the opening.
“It is a way to show our DNA, our roots, our way of thinking and point of view.” Andrea Guerra, chief executive of the Prada Group, to Reuters, 16 September 2026.
The rest of the interview is the business case. “The ‘experiential’ part of the store, the part where we host our clients, has become more important,” Guerra said, and the group has “opened ‘apartments’ in many cities around the world” and will “certainly open them in the world’s top 25 capitals”. On prices, the aim is “to offer entry-level prices that do not come as a surprise, while leveraging the product’s exclusivity, customisation and craftsmanship to expand the price spectrum”. And the number: Prada hopes the complex can generate 100 million euros in revenue a year, according to Reuters. For a single address, that is a statement of intent. Even in the Galleria.
The Luxury.it perspective
A flagship used to be the biggest shop a house owned. Not any more. Prada Galleria is something else: a building where a client can buy a coat, see the house’s archive, have a pastry from 1824, look at photographs under the dome and, by invitation, dine in an apartment, without going outside. The address makes it credible. Prada is not borrowing the Galleria’s history; it is part of it, since 1913 on the ground floor and since 2016 on the top two floors. For a visitor to Milan, the practical order is simple: register for Pradasphere, take a coffee at Marchesi on the mezzanine, go up to the Osservatorio before Steyerl’s show closes on 30 October, and walk through the Passaggio Segreto from one boutique to the other. For the city, the Galleria now has at its centre a house that treats it as home. That was Mario Prada’s idea in 1913, and it has taken 113 years to reach the roof.
Related guides
Milan Fashion Week SS27 · Paris Fashion Week SS27 · Best restaurants in Milan · Private dining in Milan
