This equestrian group has a long history. They are ancient, from classical Greece, and originally adorned the hippodrome of Constantinople. When that city was sacked in the Fourth Crusade (to the eternal shame of Christendom) they were looted and brought to Venice where they were placed above the entrance to San Marco. When Napoleon arrived in 1797 and put an end to the thousand years of the glorious Venetian Republic, he in turn looted them and brought the horses to Paris. They were returned to Venice in 1815. The horses outside are copies. The originals are in the museum, and here they are! By a stroke of good fortune nobody was around, and no guard to reprimand me for snapping a photo. The Horses of Saint Mark! They are magnificent!!
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