Located just beyond the market’s eastern boundary the Dragon Bridge was the first major Art Nouveau project to be built in the city. Designed by the architect Jurij Zaninovic, it was built in 1901 to mark the 60th birthday of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef I. The bridge gets its name from the bronze dragons that stand guard over its ends. It is said that the legendary voyagers, Jason and the Argonauts, fought with and killed a dragon in the marshes south of Ljubljana before continuing on their journey towards the Adriatic.*

Rising from the bridge’s parapet is a line of Art Nouveau lampposts, decorated with griffin motifs and crowned with full fruit-like clusters of glass globes. A plaque halfway along the bridge honours Ivan Hrbar (1851 – 1941), the mayor of Ljubljana who oversaw the bridge’s construction. The western end of the bridge provides a fine view of Ljubljiana’s market halls, with the twin towers and dome of the cathedral rising in the distance.*

*From The Eyewitness Travel Guide to Slovenia.

From The Royal Armouries website:

A tradition of displaying British military strength by creating trophies from masses of weapons has long existed at the Tower. From about 1700 visitors to the Grand Storehouse were stopped in their tracks by John Harris’s stunning displays and models, including a serpent and a seven-headed hydra, which he created from a variety of weapons including muskets, pistols and swords.

A sight ‘no one ever beheld without Astonishment…
not to be matched perhaps in the world’.
William Maitland, 18th century antiquarian

Royal Armouries Head of Creative Programmes, Karen Whitting dreamed up the idea for the mighty beast, inspired by the small figures of a dragon and a hydra in the scale model of the Grand Storehouse. Working with the creative team at Haley Sharpe Design a concept drawing was produced which York-based Paragon Creative have brought wonderfully to life.

Building on the tradition of trophies of arms and armour created at the Tower of London from the late 17th century, this new dragon has been constructed using objects and materials that represent ten institutions which were housed in the Tower.

Institutions

Ordnance Office – armour, swords, firearms and cannon to create the head, back and body, including 22 antique pistols, four swords, four rifles, two bronze cannon and 20 bayonets.

Menagerie – a cage for the ribcage

Prison – 30m of chain to create the tail

The Royal Mint – 2,000 gold and silver coins, representing the dragon’s fire plus 50 replica trial plates

Royal Observatory – 26 telescopes

Ordnance Survey – maps for wings

Record Office – scrolls for legs

Jewel House – 400 glass rubies

Constables – keys hanging around the neck

Royal Armouries – 8 breastplates, 6 muskets, 15 pollaxes, 10 mail shirts, 4 shields and bucklers

Our dragon is fittingly named Keeper, following a naming competition run in association with TV channel History™.

No of items used in total

Over 2,672 items including:

• 8 breastplates
• 6 muskets
• 22 antique pistols
• 40 shields and bucklers
• 4 swords
• 4 pairs of pauldrons
• 4 pairs of gauntlets
• 4 bronze mortars
• 8 kettle helmets
• 4 Enfield rifles
• 2 bronze canons
• 20 bayonets
• 15 pollaxes
• 10 mail vests
• 4 horse shaffrons
• 26 telescopes
• 2,000 gold and silver coins
• 30m of chain
• 400 ‘rubies’
• 1 replica Henry VIII necklace
• 50 replica trial plates

1 set of keys

There is a recurring dragon theme in the gardens at Snowshill Manor.  The photo above is of a statue of St. George and the Dragon. It was commissioned by Charles Wade from a Tyrolean craftsman, A. Dapre. It is a copy in teak of a statue that is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  The replica is faithful in every detail except size – the original is approximately one foot ten inches high.*

*Info from the Snowshill Manor and Garden guide book 2010 edition.

The Fontaine Saint-Michel is located in Place Saint-Michel.  The statue above the fountain depicts Archangel Michael and the devil, sculptured by Francisque Joseph Duret. In the foreground there are two winged dragons that were sculpted by Henri Alfred Jacquemart.

Those are just two of the nine sculptors whose work is featured in the fountain.

It is thought to be part of a medieval mechanism that raised a font cover that has long since disappeared.

This is almost certainly the remains of an elaborate lifting mechanism for raising, by way of a chain through the dragon’s mouth, the 50ft (15.2m) high cover known to have adorned the medieval font, but lost at the Reformation. *

*From the York Minster guide book.

PS: I have amended my typo as per the first comment