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DESCRIPTION:
The column in Piazza San Marco was erected in 1612, right in the center of the square, as attested by the dedicatory inscription of Vicario Girolamo Bonmartino, made using both public funds and his own personal contribution:
“Geronimo Bonmartino, Vicario of the faith of all this people, to leave a memorial for commemorative purposes, had this erected at public and personal expense in the year of salvation 1612.”
On the same base also appears a declaration of loyalty to the Most Serene Republic of Venice, which, translated from Latin, reads:
“To attest from this place as well the faithfulness of all this people toward the Most Serene Republic of Venice.”
In 1622, Vicario Giovan Battista Sassio added a second inscription, reaffirming devotion and loyalty to the State and the Doge:
“Toward the exalted and most invincible Republic of Venice and our Most Serene Doge.”
At the beginning of the 1800s, the monument was demolished, and its parts were scattered. The base, later found among the grass, was restored by the Municipality of Arquà in 1923 and still bears three high-relief coats of arms: that of Arquà, that of Venice, and that of Vicario Bonmartino.
Another inscription, placed in 1822 by Vicario Sasso da Monaco, repeated the declaration of loyalty, but it is no longer present today.
Finally, in 1929, the monument was re-erected: a new column was built, the lion was reconstructed with its paws and tail, all funded by the city of Venice — restoring to the center of the square the symbol of civic history and the bond between Arquà and the Serenissima.
