Brabo Fountain Tours and Tickets

In pole position at the heart of Antwerp’s lovely, medieval Grote Markt, the Brabo Fountainstands in front of the ornate, pennant‐encrusted Stadhuis (Town Hall) and was created in 1887by the renowned Flemish sculptor Jef Lambeaux. The flamboyant Baroque statue represents alegend concerning the origins of the city: more than 2,000 years ago Antwerp was a smallsettlement in the Roman Empire when a Russian ‘giant’ called Druon Antigoon settled on thebanks of the River Scheldt and charged ships to sail up the river; if sailors refused to pay the toll, Druon Antigoon cut their hands off in revenge. A Roman soldier named Silvius Brabo –rumored to be a relative of Julius Caesar – refused to pay and subsequently killed the giant in aduel, cutting off his hand and throwing it into the Scheldt. The hand became a symbol ofAntwerp’s freedom and still features on the city’s coat of arms; the bronze Brabo Fountainfeatures Silvius Brabo atop a pedestal awash with mythical sea monster, his body twisted in theact of throwing the hand into the river.