Brabo Fountain

About

The Brabofontein is a fountain in the Belgian city of Antwerp. On the fountain is a bronze statue of Silvius Brabo by the sculptor Jef Lambeaux, which was cast at the Bronze Company in Brussels and revealed in 1887. The Brabofontein is located in front of the Antwerp Town Hall on the Grote Markt.

The fountain was financed by the legate of August Nottebohm, uncle of Oscar Nottebohm. The sage of Brabo is about the giant Druon Antigoon, who cut off the hand of unwilling tollpayers and threw them into the Scheldt. Brabo, however, killed the giant and cut off his own hand, which he threw into the river.

According to this explanation, Antwerp would come from Hand throwing. However, the image is positioned in such a way that Brabo seems to throw the hand towards town. This is the cause of the limited distance between the town hall and the statue.

Should Brabo be positioned towards Schelde, it would look like Brabo wants to throw his hand in the town hall. There are different versions of this saga. In one of them, Brabo swings the hand away from the river and says: "Where the hand comes down, I'm building a city called "Hands." This therefore corresponds to the direction in which Brabo...