The Curious Case of the Manneken Pis
There’s more to this little pisser than meets the eye
Visitors to Brussels enjoy a variety of tourist attractions. Still perhaps the most iconic is located not far from the city’s central square. There you will find a 17th-century bronze statue of a boy mounted atop a fountain that aims a steady stream of, well, what nature demands, into a basin. (Ahem.)
The earliest mention of the Manneken Pis (“Little Pee Man”) is in a document from the early 1450s regarding the water supply for the city’s fountains. The original image of the peeing boy was made of stone and nicknamed “Petit Julian” or Little Julian.
The only representation of this first statue is in a painting by Denis Van Alsloot done in 1615.
It is a bit of a “Where’s Waldo” exercise to find it. The viewer sees only the side of the fountain from a distance, and a flowering tree obscures much of the Manneken Pis figure.
Putting the “fun” in functional
In the beginning, the Manneken Pis fountain was not just decorative. It supplied drinking water to the city’s residents. In 1619, city fathers decided to remodel the…
