Venice’s Secrets

Lion of St. Mark

With the end of the Republic of Venice (1797), a order was given to a team of six stone-cutters: they had to remove the coats of arms of qualifying homes as belonging to certain families, and with them, all the lions representing the Serenissima .

That is why today we often find around the city coat of arms chiseled, only the figures around them preserved, probably because in many cases it was sacred images that evoked the respect of those zealous operators. The job of removing the lions , given their spread , was undoubtedly the most difficult: But apart from the area Marciana and the Arsenale – where there are several escaped – the destructive fury struck the city in a scientific way against Symbol of school of St. Mark which, in all of Venice, there are only three examples left (one on the first floor of the Fontego dei Tedeschi) . They were also delete any lions placed on the keystone of the Venetian bridges: only one in Murano resists, because it was fished from the bottom of the channel and put back in its place. The only place where you are kept twenty lions in Malamocco where, apparently, the team of stonemasons never arrived.