Lion of Venice Lion of Venice The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze winged lion sculpture in the Piazza San Marco of Venice, Italy, which came to symbolize the city — as well as one of its patron saints, St Mark — after its arrival there in the 12th century. The sculpture surmounts one of two large granite columns in the Square, thought to have been erected between 1172 - 1177 during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani or about 1268, bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice. The "Lion" sculpture has had a very long and obscure history,
Main Square, Kraków Walenty Badylak, retired baker and a veteran of Poland's wartime underground Home Army, set himself alight chained to a well in the Main Square. Badylak was protesting the communist government's refusal to acknowledge the Katyn's war crime. Also, the Main Square was central in staging mass demonstrations of the Solidarity movement. In 2013 Lonely Planet travel guides rated Kraków's Main Market Square as the most beautiful in the world. The Main Square is located on the Royal Road once traversed during the Royal Coronations at Wawel Cathedral, between the Kraków barbican to the north, and the Wawel Castle to the