Manneken Pis

*Ahem* Another night time photo. One of the highlights of a trip to Brussels, this 50 cm (give or take a centimetre) sculpture of a small boy peeing in a fountain is quite the tourist attraction. Occasionally he is dressed up in one of several hundred costumes. There are a number of similar statues like this one in Belgium and there is some dispute as to which city has the oldest. There used to be a statue made of stone here as early as the 14 or 15th century. This bronze, there since 1619, was made by Franco-Flemish Baroque sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy.

Legends aplenty about Manneken Pis. One of them is that Brussels was under siege by a foreign power in the 14th century. The city had held their ground for quite some time. The attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Juliaanske from Brussels happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.

The official Manneken Pis website can be found here but this 360 degree view of the statue and surrounding buildings is actually a lot nicer.