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The Basilica’s bronze horses No pampled thoroughed horse, no hardened horse has ever had such a romantic legend as those. The story goes back to the dawn of time. We don’t know whether they are Greek or Roman. But they were brought from Trajan Arc in Rom to the racecourse’s tower in Constantinople. Enrico Dandalo found them there and brought them back to Venice. The hook of one of them broke on the way and the vessel’s captain, Morosini, kept it as a souvenir. He had it put above his door house. The horses were restored in Venice and set at the arsenal. But they gained fame in San Marco and they became the symbol of Venice’s glory. The Genoese, Venitians’s opponents, were boasting they were about to give the horses the reins. Napolion’s sappers took them down from the Basilica with an extreme difficulty (they each weigh 800 kilos) and brought them back to Paris where they stayed for 13 years on the Place du Caroussel. After Waterllo, the Austrians brought them back to San Marco.
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