Lion of Venice

Common card · No. 394018

The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze sculpture of a winged lion in the Piazzetta di San Marco, in the Italian city of Venice, which came to symbolize the city—as well as one of its patron saints, Saint Mark—after its arrival there in the 12th century. The sculpture surmounts one of the columns of San Marco and San Todaro, two large granite columns in the square, which are thought to have been erected between 1172 and 1177 during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani or about 1268, bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice. The figure, which stands on the eastern column, at some point came to represent the Lion of Saint Mark, the traditional symbol of Mark the Evangelist. The figure standing on the western column is Saint Theodore of Amasea, patron of the city before Saint Mark, who holds a spear and stands on a crocodile (to represent the dragon which he was said to have slain). It is also made up of parts of antique statues and is a copy, the original being kept in the...

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