Two monoliths stand at the water’s edge, one under a winged lion and one under a saint with a crocodile. Between them the Republic put its scaffold, and Venetians still avoid walking through the gap.
At a glance
The two shafts stand where the Piazzetta meets the basin, framing the arrival by water. Tradition credits their raising to Nicolò Barattieri under the dogeship of Sebastiano Ziani (1172–1178), when the square was enlarged and given its monumental form. The account that has come down with the columns says Barattieri lifted them by wetting the ropes, so that the fibres shrank and drew the stone upright. On the seaward column stands the winged lion of the Evangelist; on the other San Todaro, the Byzantine Theodore of Amasea, the city’s patron before Mark, with his spear and his dragon.
What you see
Two grey-and-rose granite monoliths on carved bases, close enough that everyone walks between them without thinking. Look down at the paving and up at the two figures: a lion whose provenance is still argued over, and a saint assembled from ancient and medieval pieces. The statue on the Todaro column is a copy; the original is kept indoors, in the Doge’s Palace.
Why it matters
The executioner of the Serenissima worked in the space between these columns: hangings, beheadings, quarterings, in full view of the water gate through which ambassadors arrived. The Venetian for being executed was finire tra Marco e Todero, to end up between Marco and Todero, and the superstition against walking between them has outlived the Republic by two centuries. Barattieri, the tradition adds, asked as his reward the right to run games of chance in that same space — gambling being forbidden everywhere else in the city.
Practical information
- Open ground at the edge of the basin; free, at any hour
- Venetians will tell you not to walk between the two columns. It costs nothing to go around
Getting there
Waterbus to San Marco Vallaresso or San Zaccaria; the columns stand at the water’s edge of the Piazzetta, beside the Doge’s Palace.
Sources
- Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Palazzo Ducale, on the original statue of San Todaro held in the palace
- Venetian tradition as recorded in the city’s topographical literature, on Nicolò Barattieri, the dogeship of Sebastiano Ziani and the phrase finire tra Marco e Todero
Editorial text © Cultural Heritage Online, 2026. Video filmed and narrated on site by Andrea Manzo.
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