Manneken Pis

Visit Brussels and see the Manneken Pis statue. The small bronze statue, measuring just 60 cm, was made by Duquesnoy in 1619 to replace the previous one, which was made of stone. "Manneken Pis" has become a landmark of the capital Brussels and many stories are told about the rather peculiar motif of the boy letting the water with reasonable satisfaction. One of the stories is that a son was lost to his father, who then promised to create a statue of the son as he found him, and luckily the son was found! Another story is that there was a fire in Brussels and a boy tried to put out the fire by peeing on the fire.

Equally famous are the many costumes worn by the little Manneken Pis on various occasions, and the many garments are on display in the nearby museum. In fact, there is a sculpture with the same motif, of a weeing Manneken Pis, which is even older than its Belgian 'brother' and dates back to 1608, and that sculpture is actually on Gammeltorv in Copenhagen.