animals

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horses of St. Mark's basilica by Nick Thompson
The magnificent horses of St. Mark's basilica are of pre-Christian Greek or Roman manufacture, but they were installed in the Hippodrome in Constantinople by Theodosius II. They were nicked by the Venetians during the fourth crusade and installed in front of San Marco in 1254. Napoleon made off with them in 1797, but they were returned in 1815. They have been moved into a museum just beside the central loggia and replicas cast in 1978 have stood in their old place since the early 1980s.