Lion of Venice
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.