You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Lions have always been important symbols of power and majesty, adopted and flaunted by rulers and wannabes in paintings and ponderous speeches, on heraldic shields and emblems, and with monumental statues. And as to the statues, perhaps nowhere more insistently than in the Veneto region after Venice began expanding landward in the early 15th century.
Outside the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, February 2008: some Lions of St Mark installed after the Venetians' arrival in 1428.
Bergamo in 2008
The Duomo or Cattedrale di San Lorenzo in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, in February 2012
The same, a near miss
In the Piazza Municipale outside the Cathedral of Saint George, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, May 2013
In the Casa Romei in Ferrara, May 2013
In the Castello di Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, in June 2013
The Duomo of Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige region, Italy, in December 2013
The Cathedral in Trento, Trentino/Alto-Adige, December 2013. Anywhere ever subject to Venetian hegemony is target-rich for huge statues of the Lions of St Mark.
In the gardens of the Villa Guinigi in Lucca, we find an amenable lion, and . . .
. . . an entire garden full of them. [November 2014]
The Duomo of Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, in May 2014
The Cathedral of Modena, the porch of the crypt, May 2014
Kristin failing to get the job done properly, a rainy day on the city walls of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, November 2014
With a tiny lion, in Prato, Tuscany, November 2014
Outside the Cathedral of Parma, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy, in February 2016
The lion (which may in fact be a griffin) outside the Duomo in Verona, Veneto region, Italy, in May 2016
At the entrance to the Benedictine Abbey of San Zeno in Verona, May 2016
The Cathedral of Treviso, Veneto region, Italy, March 2017
Kristin with a griffin standing in for a lion, at the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Giustina, near the famous Basilica of St Anthony of Padua, Padua, Veneto, Italy, March 2017
In the Civic Museum in Viterbo, Lazio region, December 2016 -- not a Venetian St Mark's lion
A pretty good try, in the Piazza Cavour in front of the Palazzo Grampi, part of the city hall, in Rimini, Emilia-Romagna region, December 2017
Tiny lions in Pesaro, Marche region, outside the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, December 2017
The porch of the Cathedral in Lodi, Lombardy, February 2018
Almost, but not quite. In Piacenza, October 2018
Behind the duomo, Albenga, Liguria, Italy, November 2019
Our first lion's mouth in the Western Hemisphere, and our smallest one so far. Wytheville, Virginia, October 2019.
In the Basilica di San Bartolomeo all'Isola on the Tiber Island, Rome, Italy, November 2022
At the Cathedral in Teramo, Abruzzo region, Italy, November 2022
Aspirations exceeding abilities, in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, viewed in October 2023
Another unsuspecting lion about to join our collection. In the lobby of the Royal Continental Hotel in Naples, October 2023
Visiting the Monumental Complex of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi, first things first -- hand in lion's mouth. Naples, October 2023
In front of the Duomo di Napoli, October 2023
These cute little critters are holding up the funeral monument of Catherine of Austria, daughter of Albert I Habsburg, who was King of Germany from 1298 to 1308. She was married to Charles, Duke of Calabria, at age 21 in 1316, but died in Naples without issue in 1323. This was made by Tino da Camaino in 1324, and it's in the Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples, Italy.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 22 November 2018, updated 16 January 2024. 
