When the Venetians came to Piran at the end of the 13th Century, they built the Town Hall building near the harbour and outside the town walls present at that time. It was constructed in the Roman-Gothic style; its façade was full of immured coats of arms and inscriptions. It was demolished in the year 1877. Apart from the old Town Hall, they also demolished the overpass that was connecting the building with the ancient Loggia. The new Town Hall was finished two years later.

In the central axis on the second floor you can see an immured stone statue of a lion holding an open book as a memento of the Venetian Serenissima Republic and the old Town Hall building. The Venetian lion with the book was immured in the majority of the important town buildings: an open book meant peace, and a closed one war.

The stone statue of a lion with an open book is a common feature in this region of Slovenia. Above is a picture another stone carving tucked away just off the square in Piran.

And this picture features a stone lion with an open book in the nearby town of Koper.