St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice, Italy, which predates the European Renaissance.
This cathedral is in the Byzantine style. It is adorned with more than 500 marble columns, and is decorated inside and out with almost 46,000 square feet of mosaics in brilliant colors.
Over the principal entrance are four horses in gilded bronze. They are supposed once to have adorned the triumphal arch of Nero, and afterwards that of Trajan. Constantine sent them to Constantinople, whence the Venetians brought them to Venice in 1204, after the fourth crusade. In 1797 they were taken to Paris by Napoleon, where they graced for a time the triumphal arch of the Carrousel. In 1815 they were restored to Venice.
During World War I they were carried to Rome to save them from possible destruction by enemy airplanes, but after the war they were replaced on St. Mark's.
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