The Gallery designed and built by Architect Giuseppe Mengoni (1865-1877) served as a passageway between Piazza del Duomo and Piazza della Scala. In 1885 the “Edison” company started the ... distribution of electric energy... the citizens of Milan can proudly claim the city´s worldwide primacy in the use of electricity for public lighting. W. W. II bombing caused widepread destruction... the reconstruction works retained most of the previous features (...a series of projectors was added concealed in the balcony that runs along the upper part of the Gallery). The “2000 urban light plan” provides the requalification ... and functional upgrading... of various area of historical city centre. A careful study of original architectural and lighting project, ... has led to the decision to retain the image that Mengoni had conceived some 150 years ago, and had realized with the most advanced technique available at the time: gas! The wall-mounted globes for the general lighting of the promenade and the lower part of the Gallery have been retained and so the existing system for the general lighting of the upper parts of the facades, the central dome and the vaults. The new technology of 150 W metal halide lamps with ceramic burner was adopted in every fittings. 148 new projectors smaller-sized with asymmetric lenses were used both for the lighting of the upper parts of the facades ... and to highlight the structure of the central dome, the decorations of the lunettes and the clock. (FLARE n° 28, december 2001)