You all know the statue of the Manneken Pis, but did you know that in reality there are three statues-fontaines that rise in public in Brussels?
One of the most emblematic symbols in Brussels is not a majestic bridge, a tower or a magnificent cathedral, but the small statue of a little boy happy to piss in public. If you have already been in the Belgian capital, there is a chance that you have seen Manneken Pis a bronze statue that represents a boy urinating in the basin of a fountain. The Manneken Pis is the most famous attraction of the city and is visited by hundreds or thousands of tourists every day. But few of them know that the little boy is not alone: He has a family , composed of a sister and a dog, and they all seem to suffer the same problem, namely to relieve themselves in public.
Also read: Top 10 things to do in Brussels
Manneken Pis
Flickr – Niels Mickers
The famous statue is located at the junction of two streets ( Rue de l’Étuve and Rue du Chêne ) near the Grand Place. The statue is only 61 cm tall and the current version was installed in 1619 by sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy the Old. A legend says that the statue represents a child who would have extinguished, in his way, the breach of a bomb with which the enemies wanted to set fire to the city. Another legend tells us that a rich bourgeois in Brussels had lost his young son and found him in a garden in the position we imagined.
Part of the great success of this little character so visited is due to his immense wardrobe of costumes. The statue is dressed in tiny costumes several times a week, according to an official calendar that is displayed on the grids around the fountain. Its wardrobe consists of several hundred different costumes (more than 800 currently), most of which you can discover in a permanent exhibition inside the Museum of the City of Brussels .
Credit – telegraph.co.uk
Famous characters such as Mozart or Nelson Mandela, the Manneken-Pis also dressed as a plane pilot or Russian astronaut. He sometimes dresses according to the news.
Jeanneke Pis
Flickr – su-lin
Jeanneke Pis is the little sister or the female during the Manneken-Pis, a statue of half a meter high representing a little girl with her hair styled with short braids, and addicted to a fountain by making "pipi" in front of everyone. It is a relatively recent statue in Brussels since it was erected in 1987, and that is why Jeanneke Pis remains largely unknown to travellers who do not live in Brussels. The sculpture is currently behind iron bars to protect it from vandalism. It is between numbers 10 and 12 of the impasse de la Fidélité .
Flickr – Gwenael Piaser
Zinneke Pis
Flickr – Arcadiuš
The third member of the Pis family is the dog, Zinneke Pis. The bronze sculpture is located at the corner of the Rue des Chartreux and Rue du Vieux-Marché-aux-Grains, and raises its paw to make its needs like Manneken and Jeanneke. Unlike other family members, however, Zinneke is not an active fountain. The canine statue was installed in 1998.
Flickr – Paul Kamblock
Did you know the existence of these statues in Brussels?
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