Columns of San Marco and San Todaro

Two columns in Venice, Italy

The Columns of San Marco and San Teodoro are two columns in Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. They comprise the Column of San Marco, also known as the Column of the Lion, as well as the Column of San Teodoro. The statue of the Lion of Venice, which symbolises Mark the Evangelist, surmounts the Column of the Lion. The Column of San Teodoro is topped by a statue of Theodore Tiron, who was the patron saint of Venice before he was succeeded by Saint Mark. Both columns were likely erected either between 1172 and 1177 (during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani) by Nicolò Barattieri^[1][2], or sometime around 1268.^[3]

Gallery

Images of the two columns

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  Columns of San Marco (left) and Column of San Teodoro (right)
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  Column of San Marco
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  Column of San Todaro

45°26′00″N 12°20′23″E / 45.4333°N 12.3397°E / 45.4333; 12.3397

1. Madden, Thomas F., Venice: islands of honor and profit: a new history (2012), Penguin Books, p. 98.
2. Alethea Wiel (1894). Venice. G.P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 116–.
3. Maguire, Henry and Robert S. Nelson, editors (2010), San Marco, Byzantium and the Myths of Venice (Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia); Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, pg 79 and note 10 on pg 10.