The bronze horses of St Mark's in Venice are crusader loot.

1204 · 1797 · 1815 · apart: 611 years

They were taken from Constantinople in 1204; in 1797 Napoleon carried them off to Paris, and in 1815 they came back.

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The event

• Sack of Constantinople1204 · Constantinople. Diverted by Venice, the Fourth Crusade stormed and sacked Christian Constantinople. Byzantium splintered into Latin and Greek states and never regained its former strength, while the rift between East and West deepened.

13th century · 18th century · 19th century

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• 1200 · 1215 While England was sealing Magna Carta, whole churches were being cut out of rock in Ethiopia.
• 1202 The Fibonacci numbers became famous through a puzzle about rabbits.
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• 1206 · 1279 At its height the Mongol Empire was almost one and a half times the size of modern Russia.
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