BELGIUM: NEW YORK HAS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, COPENHAGEN THE MERMAID AND BRUSSELS HAS THE MANNEKEN PIS - A STATUE OF A LITTLE BOY IN A COMPROMISING POSITION

Record ID: 862759

  • Title: BELGIUM: NEW YORK HAS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, COPENHAGEN THE MERMAID AND BRUSSELS HAS THE MANNEKEN PIS - A STATUE OF A LITTLE BOY IN A COMPROMISING POSITION
  • Date: 22nd May 2004
  • Summary: (L!2) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (APRIL 30, 2004) (REUTERS) VARIOUS GENERAL VIEWS OF THE CITY OF BRUSSELS/ PALACE OF ARTS WITH GARDENS , FOUNTAIN IN PARK (COUPLE KISSING )
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWRXLR7ZB7XK3VV7RNIZ38Q00
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: New York has the Statue of Liberty, Copenhagen has the mermaid and Brussels has the Manneken Pis - a statue of a little boy in a compromising position.
    New York has the Statue of Liberty, Copenhagen has the mermaid and Brussels has the, Manneken Pis.
    This statue of a little boy in a somewhat compromising position for centuries been a major tourist attraction in the city. When most people see the 'manneken', the first reaction is always one of amazement: "Look, how small he is Why does everybody want to see him ?"
    The people of Brussels, however, accept him the way he is. After all, it doesn't always have to be big to be beautiful.
    Nobody actually knows why the Manneken is there.
    Some believe he was nothing more than a decoration on top of a fountain, where people in the Middle-Ages came to get fresh water.
    Other legends say the Manneken represents little boy who urinated on the door of a witch who lived where the fountain now stands. The witch was so angry that she turned the little boy into a statue.
    Another legend says that a man who lost his little son found the child after two days peeing near the present location of the fountain.
    When the father spotted his child the father had the fountain with a statue of a peeing boy constructed.
    The present status's origin can be traced back to the 13th of August 1619 when the city ordered the sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy to make a new bronze statue of Manneken Pis to replace an old and withered one.
    During the course of the centuries the manneken has been hidden to protect him against bombs of invading armies. He has also been stolen several times by plundering soldiers and even by the citizens of Geraardsbergen, a city in Flanders that claims to possess the oldest statue of a peeing boy in Belgium.
    A lot of people do not know that the Manneken Pis is often dressed. At the moment he has a wardrobe of more than 730 costumes, which are all preserved in the King's House, or City Museum at the Grand-Place, the central market square of the city.
    He received his first costume on May the 1st 1698. The governor of the Austrian Netherlands gave him the costume on the occasion of festivities organized by one of the guilds of Brussels. Many more costumes where to follow.
    Even today he receives new gear when folklore groups visit Brussels.
    Among the more special costumes are for instance: an Elvis Presley outfit and a Mickey Mouse costume.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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