World Art Utopia

Het Zinneke

A bronze mutt lifts its hind leg against a green cast-iron bollard on a cobbled Brussels street corner.
Artwork FileBrussels, Belgium

Het Zinneke

SeenAug 2023

Tom Frantzen · bronze · Rue des Chartreux, Brussels

Photo: Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), taken 20 April 2018, resized, as published on Street Art Utopia (The Joke Is Built In (26 Photos), 31 October 2026).

A bronze mutt lifts its leg against a bollard at the corner of Rue des Chartreux in central Brussels. Tom Frantzen’s dog joins the city’s two other peeing statues, Manneken Pis and Jeanneke Pis, and is sometimes called Zinneke Pis. Source Source Source Checked

Seen Aug 2023 — Yair Haklai photographed the dog at its bollard on 7 August 2023, according to the camera date of his photo on Wikimedia Commons; in May 2019 Frantzen described it as located at 35 rue des Chartreux. We found no later dated photograph. Source Source Checked

💡 4 things to know

  1. A Brussels word for a muttThe Brussels region writes that a “zinneke” is a mongrel dog; Wikipedia adds that the word is also a nickname for someone living in Brussels who was not born there. Source Source Checked
  2. A tribute to Manneken PisAccording to the Brussels region, the statue stands for the multicultural character of Brussels and also pays tribute to Manneken Pis. Unlike its two relatives, it is not a fountain. Source Source Reported
  3. A theft that wasn’tWikipedia reports that the dog was reported stolen in the night of 11 March 2007, but it turned out that local residents had taken it away for repairs after vandals tried to rip it out; Frantzen repaired it and it went back in its place. Source Reported
  4. Hit by a carOn 1 August 2015 a car struck the statue and broke both its legs, according to Wikipedia. The sculptor restored it, and it was back in its usual place on 24 September 2015. Source Reported

📍 Where it is

At the corner of Rue des Chartreux (Kartuizersstraat) and Rue du Vieux-Marché-aux-Grains, near the Halles Saint-Géry; Frantzen gives the address as 35 rue des Chartreux. The dog is small and hidden by parked cars in Google Street View, so the button opens the map. Source Source Source Checked

Open in Maps

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 200711 Mar

    Reported stolen; away for repairs

  2. 20151 Aug

    Hit by a car, legs broken

  3. 201520 Sep

    Restoration note on site

  4. 201524 Sep

    Back in its place

  5. 201820 Apr

    Photo by Benoit Brummer

  6. 201931 May

    Frantzen: at 35 rue des Chartreux

  7. 20237 Aug

    Photo by Yair Haklai

Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.

🗞️ In the sources

Brussels-Capital Region (be.brussels)Standbeelden en beeldhouwwerken

“Het symboliseert het multiculturele karakter van Brussel en brengt ook hulde aan Manneken Pis.”

It symbolises the multicultural character of Brussels and also pays tribute to Manneken Pis.

Read the source →

Tintin.com — interview with Tom Frantzen31 May 2019

“The same goes for my sculpture Zinneke, located at 35 rue des Chartreux in Brussels.”

Frantzen counts it, like his Madame Chapeau, as Brussels “zwanze”, the city’s folk humour.

Read the source →

✅ The facts

Artist
Tom Frantzen Source Source Source Checked
Year
1998 (the sculptor’s own list of works and the list in Wikipedia’s Tom Frantzen article) or 1999 (Wikipedia’s Het Zinneke article, Belgique Insolite); we lean to 1998, the year Frantzen himself gives Source Source Source Source Conflicting
Medium
Bronze Source Source Checked
Place
Rue des Chartreux 35, corner of Rue du Vieux-Marché-aux-Grains, 1000 Brussels Source Source Source Checked
Commissioned by
The Chartreux district committee, to draw visitors Source Reported
Owner
The local residents, according to Wikipedia Source Reported
Photographed
20 April 2018, by Benoit Brummer; 7 August 2023, by Yair Haklai Source Source Checked

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Last checked: 1 November 2026. How we verify art