Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 186, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1915 — The Lion of St Mark’s. [ARTICLE]

The Lion of St Mark’s.

The famous winged Lion of St. Mark, symbol of the old Venetian republic, which was endangered by the Austrian air attack on the city of the lagoons, is one of the most composite monuments in existence. It is of bronze with eyes of white agates—though Venetians tell you they are diamonds —and it is believed to have ornamented some ancient Assyrian palace before it came to Venice and was raised on the top of a column in the Square of St Mark. The whole figure, as it now stands, belongs to many epochs, renovated again and again, and the only portion of the original animal remaining is the bead —except the crown—and part of the body. When last renovated in 1891 the whole lion was found to be a mass of disconnected fragments bound together with iron bands.