Nello & Patrasche

Picture shot in Belgium, Antwerp, on Tuesday 13 December 2016.

Nello & Patrasche, a boy and his dog, are the main characters of the novel “A Dog of Flanders”, by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée. The whole story is set in Antwerp and became very popular in Japan and Korea where it even is a children’s classic for decades… (more info here)

Since the 1980s, the Belgian board of tourism caught on to the phenomenon and built two monuments honouring the story to please East-Asian tourists. There is a small statue of Nello and Patrasche at the Kapelstraat in Hoboken, and there was a commemorative plaque in front of the Antwerp Cathedral donated by Toyota. This plaque has now been “upgraded” to a brand-new statue… that I’m showing you here 🙂