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,
San Barnaba, Venice San Barnaba, Venice The is a small Neoclassical-style church in the " (district) of Dorsoduro in Venice. It is dedicated to the Apostle Saint Barnabas. A church at the site was built in the ninth century, but destroyed by fire in 1105. Rebuilt in 1350, it was reconstructed in its present form in 1776 under the patronage of Marcantonio Grimani using designs of Lorenzo Boschetti. The 11th-century campanile, detached from the main body of the church, has a pine-cone shaped spire from the 1300s. To the left of the church was the entrance to the " (Casino of the Aristocracy),