Every Man, Woman and Dog Must Pee (Or the Brussels Peeing Statues)

On our first full day in Brussels, the plan was to go to the Magritt Museum in the morning. While I’m sure seeing the surrealist’s art would’ve been interesting, Andy and I just aren’t museum people. Instead we decided to go on a peeing statue scavenger hunt. We wanted to see the Brussels peeing statues.

One of the famous landmarks in Brussels is the Manneken Pis, a peeing boy statue. When we were at Zaabär making chocolate, I saw a Manneken Pis replica made out of chocolate, and they even gave us smaller versions in our goody bags.

Brussels Peeing Statues

But I wanted to see the real thing.

Jeanneken Pis

Andy and I left the hotel on a mission. We had three statues to see before going to visit the Royal Palace, followed by lunch with the rest of our group. We decided to go find the peeing girl statue first since she was closest to our hotel.

It turns out she’s pretty high up in an alcove on the wall and protected by a gate. There was also a delivery van parked in front of her, and all of these things combined made it hard for me to get a decent picture. Andy, being much taller than me, was able to help me out, and with a little cropping, I got a few that worked.

Brussels Peeing Statues

Zinneken Pis

When we were done photographing her not-so-private moment, we left the touristy section of town and went in search of the peeing dog statue. It’s in a quiet neighborhood, not too far from the busy streets crowded with tourists, but here we found just a few people who seemed to live in the area.

The dog is supposed to be a fountain like the other two, but he may have been a little dehydrated. His hind leg was lifted so he could relieve himself against a pole, but obviously no one has given him any water in awhile.

Brussels Peeing Statues

Manneken Pis

Finally we wandered towards the most famous of them all, Manneken Pis. Just a few feet away is a waffle restaurant which proudly displays its own version of the statue.

Brussels Peeing Statues

And then we saw the swarms of people, cameras all pointed in the same direction. We had found the original and most famous peeing statue, Manneken Pis. This day he was being modest and was wearing a little costume. According to the sign, he has over 800 outfits! So much for women having the reputation of owning too many clothes!

Brussels Peeing Statues

Even at 11am it was too hot to walk around outside for much longer. Silly mission accomplished, we made our way over to the Royal Palace to cool off and experience something a little less obscene.

Update: We went back about a year later, and this time he wasn’t wearing any of his 800 outfits. I guess sometimes you gotta just let it all hang out.

Manneken Pis Brussels peeing statues Belgium

Thank you to Belgien Tourismus for hosting us! All opinions are my own.


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