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,
Saint Emeric of Hungary that Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer and the namesake of the Americas, was named after the saint. Saint Emeric of Hungary Saint Emeric () also "Henricus", "Emery," "Emerick," "Emmerich", "Emericus" or "Americus" (c. 1007 – 2 September 1031) was the son of King St. Stephen I of Hungary and Giselle of Bavaria. Emeric is assumed to be the second son of Stephen I. Named after his uncle, St. Henry II, he was the only one of Stephen's sons who reached adulthood. Emeric was educated in a strict and ascetic spirit by the Benedictine monk from Venice, Gerard from the age