arcade

Series of arches carried on piers or columns. The earliest examples are found in Rome, dating from the 1st century BC. Rows of arches were frequently used as decoration, internally or externally, in Early Christian, Lombard, and other forms of Romanesque architecture, and less commonly in Gothic. They are described as ‘arcading’.

In modern building, a covered gallery with shops on either side is called an arcade; an example is the Burlington Arcade in London.