In Huy, Belgium—pronounced 'Oui,' meaning yes—sits a fountain that has been saying yes to the same job for over six centuries. According to Atlas Obscura, Li Bassinia, or 'the basin' in Walloon, is likely one of Europe's oldest metal public fountains. Cast in fourteen oh six by Pierelo del Grevier and Henri le Pottier, it features a central bronze column topped with four figures: the town's patron saints and a medieval count, each separated by smaller towers with water-spouting animal mouths. An eighteenth-century rococo canopy crowns the structure, topped with a double-headed eagle—a reminder that Huy was once a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. But here's the remarkable part: the water feeding the fountain still comes from its original source, documented in a deed from fourteen oh seven. That spring sits one kilometer away, connected by an underground canal—both now protected as historical monuments. After restoration work between twenty oh nine and twenty nineteen, locals successfully defended keeping the fountain in its original location rather than moving it to a museum. More than six hundred years later, it remains in place, still functioning, still fed by the same water.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton