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. In the palace atrium there are immured inscriptions and some of the old coats of arms from the old Town Hall, as well as the polygonal stone with quantity measures. There is an interesting legend from many years ago about the painting that has been verbally passed from generation.

The legend says: “In the 16th Century the Piran parish St. George Church on the hill was seriously eroded by the tooth of time. St. George warned the townspeople about the disgrace. He chose a boy, who at the time was sauntering about the harbour, and ordered him to tell the mayor that he – the God’s horseman – was truly outraged, as the church consecrated to him, was so un-gloriously left to ruin. Only a miracle kept it upright and such state of affairs could not last forever. Therefore it was high time for the people of Piran to begin work on renovation. The boy stammered fearfully: “What if the mayor does not believe me?” The saintly knight replied: He will straightaway be blinded!” Alas he had to make his threat come true. The mayor went blind, and the little mediator vanished into the thin air. At this point the blind pondered deeply about the state of affairs. He summoned the town council, a group of prudent and wise men, who always helped in ruling the town, and confided in them his deep concern. They jointly decided to renovate the church into the present St. George Cathedral. In the view of the town, shown in the left corner of the painting, the old St. George Church with the Bell Tower and the Baptistery is clearly visible. They had decided to build the complex of the parish church of St. George with the Bell Tower and the Baptistery in present arrangement, together with the supporting arches on the northern and southern sides of the church hill, already at the time of the painting’s creation; however, the complex was not completely finished until the first half of the 17th Century. In the foreground of Domenico Tintoretto’s painting a “happy end” had been painted: the mayor regained his sight, the boy had reappeared and knelt down before the throne in the centre between the two groups of dignitaries of Piran. All were contented, both those in heaven and on earth.