Lion Fever

The Venetians were hardly the only people in the world to adopt the lion as their sign, although theirs is a winged lion with a book. This of course symbolizes St Mark, but no one really knows why. Some say Mark ‘roared like a lion’ when he preached, or that lion cubs open their eyes after three days, the same period as the Resurrection, or that the Christians endowed each of the four Evangelists with a key astronomical constellation.

The inscription in the lion’s book, Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus (Peace upon thee, Mark, my Evangelist) are the words the angel used to greet Mark in his Venetian dream. (Legend of St. Mark)

But it’s the sheer number of lions that makes Venice really stand apart: there are at least a couple of thousand in the city itself and perhaps twice as many in the lands once ruled by the Republic.