Monster!
Inner courtyard of the Styrian Landhaus.
The Landhaus is reminiscent of some Venice palazzo. In 1557, the Italian architect Domenico dell’Allio started to construct a prestigious building for the Styrian estates. It still is the provincial parliament of Styria.
And an ugly monster is guarding it! Ah!
Picture source: timitalia’s photostream
Actually this monster is the “panther”, though it is a cross of multiple animals. Overheard an Italian tour guide the other day saying that the original “panther” had fire coming out of both ends. But in the 1500’s someone decided it was obscene to represent the region with such output – so all the representative “panthers” thereafter only have fire coming out of the mouth. I’m looking around, but I don’t see an original version, predating the 1500’s yet.
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