Stretching over a kilometer along Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street, this vast 18th-century trading arcade is one of the world's first purpose-built department stores. Construction began in 1757 to an elaborate Rastrelli design but was completed in a more restrained neoclassical style by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, taking 28 years to finish. The result is 53,000 square meters of shopping spread across what once held 178 individual shops connected by indoor streets. It served as St. Petersburg's commercial heart for over two centuries and remains an active shopping center today, now modernized but still retaining its grand arcaded structure. The nearby metro station takes its name from the building.