To begin with one should go around and visit all the palaces in Venice. One of the most ancient on the Big Canal is Palazzo Farsetti. The survived inscription by the entrance says that Enrico Dandolo, the conqueror of Byzantium, ordered to erect that palace in 1203. Close to it one can see Palazzo Loredan, which is dated back to the XIII century. The third and the fourth floors of it were constructed in the XVI century. Both buildings were designed in the Byzantium style and are interconnected. Today they constitute the house of administrative board of the city. In 1127 the venetians brought from Syria to the islands three massive marble columns for architectural needs. While unloading one of them drowned in the waters and two others were laid down to wait for their instalment. But only in 1172 they were set under a project of Niccolo Barattieri. He placed them on a square - piazzeta - close to the palace of doges by the sea. One of the columns bares the stature of flying lion in bronze and the second has a white marbled stature of St. Fyodor on a crocodile. In 1204 from ruined Constantinople to Venice islands came four huge bronze horses, in the XIV they were placed on the roof of the temple of St. Mark. Those statures were sculptured in Greece in the III century BC, later transferred into Roma. They say that it was Nero who brought huge amount of different figures from Greece. Later on, they were transferred into Constantinople presumably by an order of Konstantin the Great. But as we can see they are in Venice and now cherish the tourists to be in state of amazement at observing objects of former power and time since as one might understand those figures are at least twenty-three centuries old which is not a usual object of interest might have and those horses preserve that sacred air of reign and luxury along with vices and virtues of many different empires accumulating this knowledge for a long period of time. But not only those figures make tourists be amazed but there are many other man-made miracles which literally overflow every nook of Venice hiding between water passages or revealing on the bridges. Within XIV through XVI centuries the venetians were developing their city in its outer magnificence and made it one of the most beautiful cities of the whole Italy. By the middle of the XVth century in still waters of the Big Canal reflected more than two hundred rich and noble palaces showing that the Byzantium style gave way to another - gothic - style. The most elegant examples of gothic architecture is Ca'd'Oro - Golden House. There you can observe exquisite manner of marble instalment.
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