On one side of the Sala del Paradiso stands a column topped with a 14th-century white marble Latin cross on a granite base, featuring blossoming arms and a delicate floral corolla motif at its center. This is the original cross that once crowned the so-called “Column of Saint Zenobius” in Piazza San Giovanni, near the north side of the Baptistery. As the inscription at the base recalls, it was in fact erected to commemorate a miracle attributed to this saint, the first bishop of Florence, who died in 417. According to legend, when his remains were transferred from the Basilica of San Lorenzo to the Duomo in 429, along the way they accidentally touched an elm tree near the north door of the Baptistery, which caused it to blossom, even though it was the middle of winter. The miraculous event was commemorated by a column on the site, topped with a sandstone cross. According to the medieval chronicler Giovanni Villani, the terrible flood of 1333 swept away the original column, destroying it. A new one was erected the following year. The column thus stands as a testimony of faith, a religious symbol, and a useful landmark between the Archbishop's Palace—then located closer—Piazza San Giovanni, and the Baptistery.