The Lion of Saint Mark, representing Mark the Evangelist, pictured in the form of a winged lion holding a Bible, is the symbol of the city of Venice and of the Venetian Republic. It is found in the symbol of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, it appears in military naval flags of the Italian Republic. The Lion of Saint Mark is the symbol of the award of the Venice Film Festival, the "Golden Lion", of the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali; the representation as a lion is derived from Mark’s description of John the Baptist as "... The voice of the one who cries in the wilderness: Prepare Ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths", which artists compared to a roaring lion; the wings come from Ezekiel 1:10 and the application of the prophet's vision of four winged creatures to the evangelists. These appear again in Revelation 4:7. A second connection of Mark and lions comes from a tale recounted by Severus Ebn-El-Mokafa: "Once a lion and lioness appeared to John Mark and his father Arostalis while they were traveling in Jordan.
The father was scared and begged his son to escape, while he awaited his fate. John Mark began to pray; the two beasts fell dead and as a result of this miracle, the father believed in Christ."In some depictions the lion rests his front paws on the ground in cities with rivers or in ones close to water, indicating the Venetian balanced power on land and sea. Venetian tradition states that when Mark was traveling through Europe, he arrived at a lagoon in Venice, whereby an angel appeared to him and said, "Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. Hic requiescet corpus tuum." This tradition was used as justification by Rustico da Torcello and Bon da Malamocco in 828 for stealing the remains of Mark from his grave in Alexandria, moving them to Venice, where they were interred in the Basilica of St. Mark. A fifteen-foot bronze statue of a lion stands atop a column of Egyptian granite in St. Mark’s Square, it was brought to the lagoon during the 12th century, remained there until Napoleon moved it to Paris.
Returned in 1815, it fell and was rebuilt. It was moved from its pedestal only at the end of the 1800s for restoration and during the Second World War for safekeeping; the Lion underwent careful restoration work in the 1990s. Restorers believe its body is 2,300 years old. There are lions carved in relief on the façade of the Doge's Palace, at the Scuola Grande di San Marco The coats of arms of Popes Pius X, John XXIII, John Paul I contain the Lion of St. Mark in recognition of their previous positions as Patriarchs of Venice; the Venetian lion appears in two distinct forms. One is as a winged animal resting on water, to symbolise dominance over the seas, holding St. Mark’s Gospel under a paw; these animals can be seen all around the Mediterranean on top of a classical stone column. The other form is known in the form of a crab. Here the lion is depicted full-faced with its wings circled around the head and resembling the claws of a crustacean, it is emerging from water, so that the lion "in moleca" is associated with the lagoon and the city, whereas the standing winged lion is thought to be more associated with Venetian territory around the Mediterranean.
Other elements included in depictions of the lion include a halo over his head, a book, or a sword in its paws. In British heraldry, "Lion of St. Mark" is used to refer to all winged lions; these figures are depicted in arms as both passant and, more sejant, appear as supporters. The heraldist Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, defined the true Lion of St. Mark as being one used within religious badges to signify the saint, to have a halo. "Of Lions and Books": an in-depth article about iconography of Lion of St Mark, explaining different meanings of open and closed books
Openlands is a non-profit conservation organization and accredited land trust that works with groups and individuals in northeastern Illinois, northwestern Indiana, southeastern Wisconsin to preserve open space, develop walking and biking trails, restore natural areas, connect people to the outdoors. Openlands has protected and expanded public access to more than 55,000 acres of land for parks, forest preserves and water greenway corridors, urban gardens across the Chicago metropolitan region, it is a member of Chicago Wilderness. The organization was founded in 1963 as the Openlands Project, a project of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago. MacArthur Foundation has been a large supporter of Openlands. Between 1984 and 2018, MacArthur awarded $4,808,360 in grants to the organization. In 1970, the Lake Michigan Federation, now the Alliance for the Great Lakes, was founded as a project of Openlands before becoming an independent organization. In 1980, Friends of the Chicago River was established as a program of Openlands before becoming a separate non-profit organization.
In 1982 the Canal Corridor Association was formed by Openlands to create the first National Heritage Corridor along the old Illinois and Michigan Canal. In 1991, Openlands launched TreeKeepers, a program that trains and certifies volunteers to care for trees on some public property in the Chicago region. Program trainers include tree experts and Openlands staff. TreeKeepers is part of Openland's Urban Forestry Program which has received $1.5 million from MacArthur Foundation since 2013 to increase the Chicago region's tree canopy and expand community outreach and engagement. Since the program launched, the organization has trained more than 2,000 volunteers. More than 5,000 trees have been planted in Chicago by volunteers of the program since 2013; the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve in Fort Sheridan opened to the public in 2011. It encompasses 77 acres of bluffs along a mile of the shore of Lake Michigan. In 2012 Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge was established by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service after seven years of advocacy by Openlands and partners.
Hackmatack was the first national wildlife refuge in the Chicago region and will consist of 11,200 acres of protected wildlife habitat. In 2018 Conserve Lake County merged into Openlands
Famous buildings in Novi Sad: Petrovaradin fortress Clock Tower Serbian National Theatre Worker's University Eđšeg City Hall White Banovina Bishop's Palace Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession in Kisač Novi Sad Synagogue The Name of Mary Church Saint George's Cathedral Karađorđe Stadium Spens Sports Center NIS building Main Post Office Building Novi Sad Fair Train Station Religious architecture in Novi Sad Infrastructure of Novi Sad