This statue of a little boy in a somewhat compromising position has since several centuries been a major tourist attraction in the city. 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.
He is believed to be nothing more than a decoration on top of a fountain, where people in the Middle-Ages came to get fresh water. The official 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 our little manneken has often 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 very often dressed.