Colonna di San Marco e San Teodoro Historical Timeline

Raised from Constantinople

The two granite columns marking the entrance to Piazza San Marco from the lagoon were erected in the late 12th century, during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani, by an engineer named Nicolò Barattieri. The columns themselves were brought to Venice from the eastern Mediterranean, part of the flow of spoils and materials that connected the Venetian Republic to the Byzantine world.

According to a popular (if unverifiable) legend, Barattieri was rewarded for successfully raising the two massive columns with an unusual privilege: the exclusive right to run a gambling table in the space between them, an activity otherwise banned throughout the Republic. Gambling in the piazzetta persisted for centuries afterward, even as the practice was outlawed elsewhere in the city.