Dressed in a yellow jersey to commemorate the start of the Tour de France.
One of Belgium’s most famous icons is Manneken Pis – a small statue of a boy peeing into a fountain. The inspiration is rumored to be that in the 12th century, the son of a duke was caught urinating during the midst of battle and the statue was erected in honor of Belgium’s military courage. Another theory is that Belgium was on fire during battle and this little boy put out the fire by urinating, thus saving the country.
Whatever the history, you cannot help but spot images of Manneken Pis all over Brussels. He has been immortalized in chocolate, holding wafles, peeing into beer, expelling lemonade, etc., etc.. He is everywhere. To see the real statues, all you need to do is follow the crowd. A huge gathering always surrounds the small figurine tucked into the corner of a street.
What’s even odder (to me), is that they dress the statue daily. He has more than 500 outfits donated by visiting heads of state. The outfits are on display in the Musee de la Ville, but I enjoyed just making a trek to Manneken Pis the past few days to see what the fashionable 17th century statue was wearing.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that there is also a female equivalent of the statue. Erected in 1985, the lesser-known girl is named Jeanneke Pis. But unlike Manneken, she is tucked into a dead-end alley near the popular Delirium Cafe, and she sits up behind bars where it’s harder to get a good view. But I managed to capture her image. Here she is, in all her glory:
Browsing The Atlas 
I didn’t know they dress the statue daily!? Wow. I think I would prefer to actually like to see it in its birthday suite..the original, you know.. :p
Actually, sometimes they do leave him naked. He has 800 outfits, so could wear a different outfit every day of the year, but sometimes he’s just in his birthday suit. 🙂
OMG When i saw the Manekin Pis he was totally naked last year! I didn’t even know they dress the statue up! Looks so much cooler!
I know. It’s kinda bizarre. I wanted to see how they dressed him on the 4th of July, but it was raining. A friend got a picture. She’s supposed to send it to me. I know he was in red, white and blue.