Three enormous columns were captured from Constantinople and erected here in 1172. One fell in the water and has not been seen since. Until the eighteenth century criminals were executed here and therefore even today some Venetians dare not walk between the columns. St.Theodore (here on a crocodile-like dragon} was the patron saint of the city before St-Mark’s relics came to Venice in 828. Marcus the winged lion is today the city’s symbol. It is possibly a fifth century B.C. Assyrian sculpture
