Statue Of Bartolomeo Colleoni

Lonely Planet review

Presiding over the grand canalside square is the proud equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, a self-indulgent mercenary who from 1448 commanded armies for the Republic. It is one of only two such works in the city, a magnificent piece by the Florentine Verrocchio (1435-88). Although Colleoni was of the military school that preferred to live to fight another day, he remained faithful to La Serenissima.

On his death in 1474, he bequeathed 216,000 gold and silver ducats and considerably more in property to Venice, on one condition - that the city erect a commemorative statue to him in Piazza San Marco. The Senato took the money but cheated, placing the grand statue here instead. After all, the wise rulers of Venice reasoned after Colleoni's death, the name San Marco appears in the scuola grande on the square. Still, Colleoni can rest easy that the Republic didn't scrimp on the statue itself.