This week in 1978: student club steals Manneken Pis for the last time, since then he has been urinating on a barrel of beer on the day of student baptism | Inland

Hieronymus Duquesnoy the Elder made the bronze statue of Manneken Pis in 1619, after the example of the ‘putti pisciatori’ or peeing children’s figures. According to the most likely legend, the public fountain is a tribute to the many tanneries in the Stoofstraat. Tanners used children’s urine to soften leather with the acid from the urine. Less likely, but more striking is the saga of Juliaantje. Enemies besieging Brussels pretended to surrender, but in reality put gunpowder under the ramparts to blow up the city. Little Julian is said to have noticed the burning fuse and extinguished it by peeing on it. An act of heroism that would have saved the city of Brussels from destruction. Hence the original name of the fountain with a stone statue in the 14th century: ‘Julianekensborre’ or Petit Julien.

Manneken Pis, still found today in the natural stone niche on the corner of Rue Stoof and Rue Eik, was not only kidnapped or stolen at least seven times, but also suffered the siege of Brussels by the French King Louis XIV in August 1695. It The statue was taken to safety and placed back on its six-metre-high pedestal a few days later.

In 1747, French soldiers wanted to steal the statue. King Louis XV was then able to calm things down by having the perpetrators arrested, gifting Manneken Pis with a beautiful costume of gold-embroidered brocade and having him join the Order of Saint Louis.

The peeing boy – barely 55.5 cm tall – remained unscathed until 1817. On the night of 4 to 5 October 1817, a forced laborer, Antoine Licas, took the statue and cut it into pieces to sell it for scrap. The remains were found under a pile of rubble and the statuette was restored. The assailant was caught in November. In February 1818 he was sentenced to hard labor for life, a sentence later reduced to 20 years. He also had to stand in the pillory on the Grote Markt for an hour.

In 1955 and 1957 there were again two attempts at the theft of Manneken Pis. Members of the Antwerp student club ‘Wikings’ made off with it in the night of 16 to 17 January 1963. They received 80,000 Belgian francs for that theft. That is almost 2,000 euros, but today, taking inflation into account, that would amount to more than 15,000 euros. That nice amount went to a charity for the disabled and therefore the perpetrators were not punished.

In 1965 the statue was damaged again. The upper part was found a few months later in the Brussels canal. The statue had to be restored again. Then it was decided to make a replica and keep the original in the Broodhuis, where the Museum of the City of Brussels is located.

But that copy of Manneken Pis also attracted thieves. On April 26, 1978, a student club from Anderlecht stole the replica. A stunt for the presidential election. As punishment, the students had to make a costume. Every year Manneken Pis wears this suit during the student baptism in Brussels. Instead of water, the little guy urinates on a barrel of beer. The ketje van Brussel now has more than 1,000 costumes in its wardrobe, offered by donors from all over the world.

Finally: what about the statue of Manneken Pis in Geraardsbergen? According to legend, this would be a replica, donated by the inhabitants of Brussels because the inhabitants of Geraardsbergen had helped to apprehend the English soldiers who had kidnapped Manneken Pis in 1745. But Manneken Pis van Geraardsbergen is not a replica. That statue itself dates back to the 15th century and is therefore older than the Manneken Pis from 1619 by Hieronymus Duquesnoy the Elder. The Juliane of the ‘Julianekensborre’, mentioned as early as 1388, is said to be older than the peeing boy in Geraardsbergen. In short, the feud between the two cities is still unresolved.