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The Venetians brought those horses back from Constantinople in 1204 following the Fourth Crusade. The horses date from the 4th century AD. The horses were put on the loggia over the main portal of San Marco in the mid 13th century, and the ensemble became a symbol of Venetian might. Every single enemy of the Venetian state afterwards vowed to walk off with the horses, but it was only Napoleon who managed to do that. In 1797 he had them sent to Paris, but they were returned in 1815. The return of the horses was even the object of a specific clause in the Vienna congress, who met to redraw the map of Europe following Napoleon's downfall. In 1982 the original horses were put in a museum to escape pollution.
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Western Europe
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