Lions of St Marks

You are currently approaching the corner of First Avenue and St. Marks Place. If you are looking for the stone lions often associated with the history of St. Marks, you will find them guarding the entrance to St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery, located a short walk away at Second Avenue and 10th Street. These sculptures were commissioned by a rector of the church in the 1920s to represent the lion, which is the traditional symbolic figure of Saint Mark. They have stood as quiet sentinels for a century, watching over one of the city's oldest continuously occupied sites.