Context :

Aims : The intracluster light ( ICL ) is a faint diffuse stellar component in clusters made of stars not bound to individual galaxies .
We have carried out a large scale study of this component in the nearby Virgo cluster .

Methods : The diffuse light is traced using planetary nebulae ( PNe ) .
The surveyed areas were observed with a narrow-band filter centered on the [ OIII ] \lambda 5007 Å emission line redshifted to the Virgo cluster distance ( the on-band image ) , and a broad-band filter ( the off-band image ) .
For some fields , additional narrow band imaging data corresponding to the H \alpha emission were also obtained .
The PNe are detected in the on-band image due to their strong emission in the [ OIII ] \lambda 5007 Å line , but disappear in the off-band image .
The contribution of Ly- \alpha emitters at z = 3.14 are corrected statistically using blank field surveys , when the H \alpha image at the field position is not available .

Results : We have surveyed a total area of 3.3 square degrees in the Virgo cluster with eleven fields located at different radial distances .
Those fields located at smaller radii than 80 arcmin from the cluster center contain most of the detected diffuse light .
In this central region of the cluster , the ICL has a surface brightness in the range \mu _ { B } = 28.8 - 30 mag arsec ^ { -2 } , it is not uniformly distributed , and represents about 7 % of the total galaxy light in this area .
At distances larger than 80 arcmin the ICL is confined to single fields and individual sub-structures , e.g .
in the sub-clump B , the M60/M59 group .
For several fields at 2 and 3 degrees from the Virgo cluster center we set only upper limits .

Conclusions : These results indicate that the ICL is not homogeneously distributed in the Virgo core , and it is concentrated in the high density regions of the Virgo cluster , e.g .
the cluster core and other sub-structures .
Outside these regions , the ICL is confined within areas of \sim 100 kpc in size , where tidal effects may be at work .
These observational results link the formation of the ICL with the formation history of the most luminous cluster galaxies .