Boll Weevil Monument (Enterprise, Alabama)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"weird-monuments-enterprise-alabama-boll-weevil-statue\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Weird-Monuments-Enterprise-Alabama-Boll-Weevil-Statue-1024x632.jpg\")
Image “Boll Weevil Monument, Enterprise, Alabama<\/a>” via Flickr — CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a> — Martin Lewison<\/a>, cropped from original. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDowntown Enterprise, Alabama<\/a> is home to the Boll Weevil Monument<\/a>. Featuring a statue of a woman in a flowing robe holding a giant boll weevil beetle above her head, the monument was erected in 1919 by residents hailing the insect as a “herald of prosperity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat truly makes this monument unique is not that it\u2019s a giant beetle in the center of a small town, but what it commemorates. Swarms of boll weevils devastated cotton crops throughout the southern United States during the early 1900s. Farms and industries in the area around Enterprise were forced to diversify and thus found new opportunities and wealth. They don\u2019t call it Enterprise for nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, next time you\u2019re bitten by the travel bug, explore flight deals<\/a> to this tiny town in the southeastern corner of Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\nKindlifresserbrunnen (Bern, Switzerland)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"weird-monuments-bern-child-eater-fountain\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Weird-Monuments-Bern-Child-Eater-Fountain-1024x751.jpg\")
Image “Kindlifresserbrunnen<\/a>” via Flickr \u2013 CC BY 2.0<\/a> \u2013 Janet McKnight<\/a>, cropped from original.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf seeing the word Kindlifresserbrunnen<\/em> makes you think, \u201cthat\u2019s a mouthful!\u201d wait till you find out what this German word means! The term translates to English as \u201cChild Eater Fountain\u201d and is the name for a fountain in the Swiss capital of Bern<\/a> with a statue at its center depicting an ogre gobbling down an infant and holding a sack with more babies presumably to be devoured next.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy? Good question. No one really knows what Renaissance sculptor, Hans Gieng had in mind when he crafted the fountain features in 1545 but the three main theories are that it reflected anti-foreigner attitudes of the Middle Ages, is a representation of Krampus (the Alpine Christmas monster who punished misbehaving children), or based on the Greek myth of Cronus eating his children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may also enjoy: The 4 Strangest Museums in New York City<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nSaint Wenceslas Riding a Dead Horse (Prague, Czech Republic)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"weird-monuments-prague-dead-horse-statue\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Weird-Monuments-Prague-Dead-Horse-Statue-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Image “Ride a Dead Horse<\/a>” via Flickr — CC BY 2.0<\/a> — Chris Shervey<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf the previous post didn’t convince you that Europe\u2019s most beautiful cities can have some of the weirdest statues, this monument is sure to make you stop and stare. Case in point: the one of Saint Wenceslas riding an upside-down dead horse. Suspended in the air inside Lucerna Palace, the work is by local sculptor David \u010cern\u00fd. It was installed in and is a surrealist response to a stature of a most traditionally mounted Wenceslas, which can be seen just outside the palace. And yep, Saint Wenceslas is the same as the \u201cgood king\u201d Wenceslas of Christmas carol fame. It\u2019s definitely something to see between all the cathedrals, beer halls, and strolls across Charles Bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other unusual monuments and public art in Prague include \u010cern\u00fd\u2019s Babies<\/em> crawling up the city\u2019s television tower, Jaroslav R\u00f3na\u2019s Memorial to Franz Kafta (a man riding piggyback on a larger headless man), a few Soviet-era monuments and memorials, and odder looking commemorative pieces of public art.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMonument to Enemas (Zheleznovodsk, Russia)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Not only did the folks of Russian <\/a>Caucasus town Zheleznovodsk think their town needed an enema but reckoned they should celebrate it with a monument. Modeled after Italian Renaissance artist Alessandro Botticelli\u2019s painting, Venus & Mars<\/em>, the five-foot, 800-pound bronze statue<\/a> by Russian artist Svetlana Avakova is shaped like a syringe bulb and supported on the wings of cherubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt can be viewed outside the city\u2019s Mashuk-Akva Term spa. The spa\u2019s director Alexander Kharchenko is quoted as saying the enema \u201cis almost a symbol of our region.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Manneken Pis (Brussels, Belgium)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"weird-monuments-brussels-pis-statue\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Weird-Monuments-Brussels-Pis-Statue-1024x681.jpg\")
<\/a>Image “Manneken Pis<\/a>” via Flickr — CC BY 2.0<\/a> — Jose Antonio Navas<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nManneken Pis<\/a> is a small bronze sculpture depicting a naked little boy peeing into a fountain’s basin. Designed by Hi\u00ebronymus Duquesnoy the Elder between 1618 and 1619, the cheeky landmark is a city icon and probably the most widely known symbol in Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs the capital of Belgium <\/a>and the host of the official seat of the European Union, it\u2019s nice to see Brussels doesn\u2019t take itself so seriously. When you visit, you\u2019re sure to notice locals are friendly and welcoming. And don\u2019t worry! Public urination isn\u2019t rampant or actually encouraged!<\/p>\n\n\n\nGenghis Khan Equestrian Statue (TsonjinBoldog, Mongolia)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"weird-monuments-mongolia-gengis-khan-statue\"](\"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Weird-Monuments-Mongolia-Gengis-Khan-Statue-1024x681.jpg\")
<\/a>Image “transmongolie-613<\/a>” via Flickr — CC BY 2.0<\/a> — Vaiz Ha<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCompleted in 2008, this enormous monument to Genghis Khan is of historic proportion. The colossal stainless steel statue of the Mongolian conqueror on horseback is 130 feet tall with a 33-foot tall base that doubles as a coliseum and visitor center. The monument is about 30 miles outside of the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar <\/a>and can be seen for miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[Top Featured Image “Kindlifresserbrunnen<\/a>” via Flickr \u2013 CC BY 2.0<\/a> \u2013 Janet McKnight<\/a>, cropped from original.]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDid we leave any weird monuments out? Tell us about it in the comments section below. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’re an experienced traveler, then you know that no matter where you go in the world, there’s going to be a monument to something or someone. Sometimes, the most popular places to visit have some kind of statue, plaque, or something commemorating a historically relevant event, person, or thing. They don’t necessarily have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":97185125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,66],"tags":[2682,1130,2230,2680,1011,2681,751],"class_list":["post-97185026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-history","category-interests","tag-bern","tag-brussels","tag-mongolia","tag-monuments","tag-prague","tag-statues","tag-weird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97185026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97185026"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97185026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97211781,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97185026\/revisions\/97211781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97185125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97185026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97185026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97185026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Downtown Enterprise, Alabama<\/a> is home to the Boll Weevil Monument<\/a>. Featuring a statue of a woman in a flowing robe holding a giant boll weevil beetle above her head, the monument was erected in 1919 by residents hailing the insect as a “herald of prosperity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n What truly makes this monument unique is not that it\u2019s a giant beetle in the center of a small town, but what it commemorates. Swarms of boll weevils devastated cotton crops throughout the southern United States during the early 1900s. Farms and industries in the area around Enterprise were forced to diversify and thus found new opportunities and wealth. They don\u2019t call it Enterprise for nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, next time you\u2019re bitten by the travel bug, explore flight deals<\/a> to this tiny town in the southeastern corner of Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If seeing the word Kindlifresserbrunnen<\/em> makes you think, \u201cthat\u2019s a mouthful!\u201d wait till you find out what this German word means! The term translates to English as \u201cChild Eater Fountain\u201d and is the name for a fountain in the Swiss capital of Bern<\/a> with a statue at its center depicting an ogre gobbling down an infant and holding a sack with more babies presumably to be devoured next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? Good question. No one really knows what Renaissance sculptor, Hans Gieng had in mind when he crafted the fountain features in 1545 but the three main theories are that it reflected anti-foreigner attitudes of the Middle Ages, is a representation of Krampus (the Alpine Christmas monster who punished misbehaving children), or based on the Greek myth of Cronus eating his children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may also enjoy: The 4 Strangest Museums in New York City<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the previous post didn’t convince you that Europe\u2019s most beautiful cities can have some of the weirdest statues, this monument is sure to make you stop and stare. Case in point: the one of Saint Wenceslas riding an upside-down dead horse. Suspended in the air inside Lucerna Palace, the work is by local sculptor David \u010cern\u00fd. It was installed in and is a surrealist response to a stature of a most traditionally mounted Wenceslas, which can be seen just outside the palace. And yep, Saint Wenceslas is the same as the \u201cgood king\u201d Wenceslas of Christmas carol fame. It\u2019s definitely something to see between all the cathedrals, beer halls, and strolls across Charles Bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other unusual monuments and public art in Prague include \u010cern\u00fd\u2019s Babies<\/em> crawling up the city\u2019s television tower, Jaroslav R\u00f3na\u2019s Memorial to Franz Kafta (a man riding piggyback on a larger headless man), a few Soviet-era monuments and memorials, and odder looking commemorative pieces of public art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only did the folks of Russian <\/a>Caucasus town Zheleznovodsk think their town needed an enema but reckoned they should celebrate it with a monument. Modeled after Italian Renaissance artist Alessandro Botticelli\u2019s painting, Venus & Mars<\/em>, the five-foot, 800-pound bronze statue<\/a> by Russian artist Svetlana Avakova is shaped like a syringe bulb and supported on the wings of cherubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be viewed outside the city\u2019s Mashuk-Akva Term spa. The spa\u2019s director Alexander Kharchenko is quoted as saying the enema \u201cis almost a symbol of our region.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manneken Pis<\/a> is a small bronze sculpture depicting a naked little boy peeing into a fountain’s basin. Designed by Hi\u00ebronymus Duquesnoy the Elder between 1618 and 1619, the cheeky landmark is a city icon and probably the most widely known symbol in Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the capital of Belgium <\/a>and the host of the official seat of the European Union, it\u2019s nice to see Brussels doesn\u2019t take itself so seriously. When you visit, you\u2019re sure to notice locals are friendly and welcoming. And don\u2019t worry! Public urination isn\u2019t rampant or actually encouraged!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Completed in 2008, this enormous monument to Genghis Khan is of historic proportion. The colossal stainless steel statue of the Mongolian conqueror on horseback is 130 feet tall with a 33-foot tall base that doubles as a coliseum and visitor center. The monument is about 30 miles outside of the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar <\/a>and can be seen for miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Top Featured Image “Kindlifresserbrunnen<\/a>” via Flickr \u2013 CC BY 2.0<\/a> \u2013 Janet McKnight<\/a>, cropped from original.]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Did we leave any weird monuments out? Tell us about it in the comments section below. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’re an experienced traveler, then you know that no matter where you go in the world, there’s going to be a monument to something or someone. Sometimes, the most popular places to visit have some kind of statue, plaque, or something commemorating a historically relevant event, person, or thing. They don’t necessarily have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":97185125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,66],"tags":[2682,1130,2230,2680,1011,2681,751],"class_list":["post-97185026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-history","category-interests","tag-bern","tag-brussels","tag-mongolia","tag-monuments","tag-prague","tag-statues","tag-weird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97185026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97185026"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97185026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97211781,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97185026\/revisions\/97211781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97185125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97185026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97185026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cheapoair.com\/miles-away\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97185026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kindlifresserbrunnen (Bern, Switzerland)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Saint Wenceslas Riding a Dead Horse (Prague, Czech Republic)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Monument to Enemas (Zheleznovodsk, Russia)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Manneken Pis (Brussels, Belgium)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue (TsonjinBoldog, Mongolia)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>