Horses of Saint Mark

The Horses of San Marco (also: Quadriga marciana, Quadriga of St. Mark's Basilica, and other names ) are a group of four life-size gilded bronze sculptures adorn their modern copies the loggia on the west portal of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Today in the Museum of San Marco original sculptures are part of the only surviving from the ancient world free plastic Quadriga. Origin and exact age of the horse statues are still controversial. The horses were in 1204 after the sack of Constantinople - where they were likely to see in the Hippodrome - managed during the 4th crusade to Venice, but are probably only in the middle of the 13th century have been involved in the artistic facade design of the basilica.